V 


\  /  / 


THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 
HENRY  FIELDING,  ESQ. 


One  hundred  and  ten 
copies  were  ■printed. 
'This  is  No 


IIIvNRT  fiei.bix(;,.Etati.^  xlyoi 


The  Life  and  Writings  of  Henry 
Fielding,  Esq.;  by  Thomas 
Keightley.  Taken  from  the  pages 
o{  Eraser  s  Magazine ;  and  edited 
by  Frederick  Stoever  Dickson. 


Cleveland:  The  Rowfant  Club 

December,  1907 


Copyright,  1907 

BY 

THE  ROWFANT  CLUB 


CONTENTS 


Preface,  by  Frederick  Stoever  Dickson 
Life  and  Writings  of  Henry  Fielding,   Esq. 
Annotations     ....... 

Appendix  A:     Biographies  of  Fielding 
Appendix  B:     The  First  Edition  of  "Tom  Jones' 

and  the  Second,  compared 
Index         ........ 


PAGE 

n 

17 

103 

129 

139 


i941« 


iY'^i 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Portrait  of  Fielding,  from  Hogarth's  Drawing 

Frontispiece 

Portrait  of  Fielding,  from  bust  in  Town-hall, 
Taunton,   England      .  .         .  .          .          .        12 

Portrait  of  Fielding,  from  miniature  in  posses- 
sion OF  his  grand-daughter.  Miss  Sophia  Field- 
ing .........       14 

Book-plate  of  Rt.  Hon.  Basil  Fielding,  Earl  of 
Denbigh;   1703        .......      104 

Title-page  of  the  first  issue  of  the  six-volume 
edition  (the  genuine  first  edition)  of  "Tom 
Jones"  .........     130 

Title-page  of  the  second  issue  of  the  six-volume 
edition  of   "Tom  Jones".  ....      130 

Page  lxiii  [Errata]  of  the  first  issue  of  the 
six-volume  edition  of   "Tom  Jones"  .  .      131 

Page  lxiii  of  the  second  issue  of  the  six-volume 
edition  of  "Tom  Jones"     .....      131 


PREFACE 

THOMAS  KEIGHTLEY,  a  son  of  Thomas  Keightley 
of  Newtoun,  County  Kildare,  Ireland,  was  born 
in  Dublin,  October,  1789,  and  having  received  an  ordi- 
nary education  in  the  country,  he  entered  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Dublin,  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1803,  at  the  age  of 
thirteen  years  and  nine  months.  He  v^as  intended  for 
the  bar,  but  delicacy  of  constitution  and  other  causes 
excluded  him  from  this  and  the  other  professions,  and 
he  left  college  without  taking  a  degree. 

He  came  to  London  in  1824,  ^^  the  age  of  thirty-five, 
as  a  literary  adventurer,  and  his  first  exploit  was  aiding 
T.  Crofton  Croker  in  compiling  the  "Fairy  Legends  of 
the  South  of  Ireland."  He  wrote  for  various  reviews, 
especially  for  the  Foreign  Quarterly.  He  published 
Outlines  of  History,  1829;  ^  History  of  Rome,  1836;  a 
History  of  Greece,  1835;  a  History  of  England,  1839; 
Fairy  Mythology,  revised  edition,  1851 ;  The  Mythology 
of  Greece  and  Italy,  third  edition,  1854;  Virgil's  Bucolics 
and  Georgics,  1846;  History  of  India,  1847;  Satires 
and  Epistles  of  Horace,  1848;  Ovid,  1848;  Sallust, 
1849;  a  Life  of  Milton,  1855;  the  Poems  of  MiLTON, 
1859;  etc. 


12  HENRY  FIELDING 

Mr.  Warren  in  his  Law  Studies  highly  commends 
Mr.  Keightley's  histories,  and  Doctor  AlHbone  says 
"the  works  of  this  author  have  been  praised  in  other 
quarters  also,  and  by  none  with  more  earnestness  than 
Mr.  Keightley  himself,  who  of  course  best  understands 
their  pecuHar  merits,"  and  he  declares  that  "  the  pref- 
ace to  his  Fairy  Mythology,  and  that  to  his  Life  of 
Miltoriy  are  certainly  among  the  most  curious  chapters  of 
literary  history  with  which  our  researches  have  made  us 
acquainted."  Here  Doctor  Allibone  refers  to  Mr. 
Keightley's  modest  confession  that  he  had  "  high  hopes 
of  immortality  "  for  his  work,  but  why  condemn  Mr. 
Keightley  for  merely  "high  hopes"  when  every  author 
knows  his  next  book  will  be  immortal  though  he  says 
it  not. 

Thomas  Keightley  died  in  Kent  on  the  fourth  of 
November,  1872,  and  here  are  his  hopes  of  immortality 
realized  —  embalmed  by  the  Rowfanters. 

In  Eraser's  Magazine  for  January  and  February, 
1858,  Thomas  Keightley  contributed  an  essay  On  the 
Life  and  fVritings  of  Henry  Fielding,  and  in  the  number 
for  June  following  there  is  a  Postscript  to  Mr.  Keightley  s 
Articles  on  Henry  Fielding.  This  essay  was  written  in 
part  as  a  review  of  Frederick  Lawrence's  Life  of  Henry 
Fielding,  published  in  1855.  It  is  understood  that  Mr. 
Keightley  used  in  this  review  material  which  he  had 


tyU'^iyu  c  ^c  Mf  *'^ 


9 


PREFACE  13 

collected  for  a  Life  of  Fielding,  a  project  which  the  ap- 
pearance of  Lawrence's  book  caused  him  to  abandon. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  Keightley's  essay  contains  much  of 
interest  and  importance  on  several  obscure  points  in 
Fielding's  career,  and  biographers  since  his  day  cannot 
ignore  his  work.  It  is  odd  that  this  admirable  essay 
should  never  have  been  reprinted,  as  it  is  today  to  be 
found  only  in  the  pages  of  Erasers  Magazine,  and  the 
task  of  now  reprinting  it  in  suitable  garb  is  very  cheer- 
fully assumed  by  the  Rowfant  Club. 

The  matter  contained  in  the  postscript,  published 
in  the  June  number  of  Eraser,  is  now  printed  with  the 
text  of  the  original  article,  the  paragraphs  thus  inserted 
being  indicated  by  being  enclosed  in  brackets,  and 
some  few  notes  have  been  added  by  the  editor. 

It  is  very  nearly  certain  that  when  Fielding  died  no 
portrait  of  him  was  in  existence,  and  that  his  friend 
William  Hogarth  attempted  to  supply  the  omission  by 
sketching  his  features  from  recollection.  There  is  a 
tradition  that  David  Garrick  aided  in  this  by  "making 
up"  and  posing  for  the  artist,  and  on  this  imaginary 
incident  M.  de  Segur  founded  his  comedy,  Le  Portrait 
de  Fielding,  Comedie  en  un  Acte;  Pans  An.  viii  [1800], 
but  both  Steevens  and  Ireland,  who  wrote  of  the  life 
and  works  of  Hogarth,  and  who  had  exceptional 
opportunities  for  knowing,  declare  that  the  sketch  was 


14  HENRY  FIELDING 

drawn  from  memory.  This  sketch  was  engraved  by 
James  Basire  for  the  first  edition  of  Fielding's  works, 
pubHshed  in  1762.  In  Volume  III  of  Nichols's  Literary 
Anecdotes  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  there  is  a  portrait 
of  Henry  Fielding,  published  January  i,  1812,  engraved 
by  Roberts,  and  said  to  be  "From  a  Miniature  in  the 
Possession  of  his  Granddaughter  Miss  Sophia  Fielding." 
This  portrait  has  not  to  my  knowledge  ever  been  re- 
produced with  the  Hogarth  drawing,  and  the  two  por- 
traits appear  here  for  the  first  time  in  the  same  volume. 
It  seems  clear  on  comparison  that  the  miniature  was 
made  from  Hogarth's  sketch.  In  the  town-hall  of 
Taunton  is  a  bust  of  Fielding,  unveiled  on  the  fourth 
of  September,  1883,  on  which  occasion  Mr.  James 
Russell  Lowell  delivered  an  address.  This  bust  of 
Fielding  is  also  reproduced  here,  so  that  we  have  in 
this  volume  about  all  that  we  can  ever  know  as  to  the 
appearance  of  Henry  Fielding. 

In  the  description  of  the  first  edition  of  Tom  Jones 
we  have  reproduced  in  facsimile  the  title-pages  of  both 
the  first  and  second  editions,  for  while  variations  exist 
they  are  so  slight  that  mere  word  descriptions  would 
scarce  enable  one  to  distinguish  one  from  another.  It 
has  been  thought  worth  while  also  to  reproduce  the  leaf 
of  errata,  in  the  first  volume  of  the  first  edition,  and  also 
the  same  page  when  numbered  Ixiii  in  the  second  edition. 


Bi^m  in  J.V.Z  died  in  27o4. 


/MMtJliy  JJKA^  Jc  Jim.  Jan^j^jAt. 


PREFACE  15 

The  list  of  biographies  of  Henry  Fielding  does  not 
pretend  to  give  more  than  the  more  important  items  on 
the  subject,  together  with  the  minor  items  contributed 
by  authors  who  have  also  written  matter  extensive 
enough  to  justify  inclusion  in  such  a  list. 

FREDERICK   STOEVER    DICKSON 

The  Rowjant  Club, 
Cleveland,  ^po/. 


THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS  OF 
HENRY  FIELDING,  ESQ. 


BY 

THOMAS   KEIGHTLEY 


THE   LIFE   AND  WRITINGS  *dF"HENRV' 
FIELDING,    ESQ. 

IN  former  days  the  following  brief  biographic  notices 
would  perhaps  have  been  termed  an  Apology;  for  my 
object  is  to  vindicate  the  character  of  Henry  Fielding, 
who  in  my  opinion  has  met  with  rather  hard  measure 
from  friends  as  well  as  from  foes.  I  even  take  under 
my  patronage  his  two  principal  heroes,  and  hope  to  be 
able  to  show  that  they,  too,  have  met  with  treatment 
which  they  did  not  altogether  deserve.  I  have  been 
led  to  it  by  a  perusal  of  Mr.  Lawrence's  late  work  on 
this  subject,  which  not  a  little  disappointed  me,  as  I 
believe  it  did  almost  every  one  else.  This  is  much  to 
be  regretted,  as  Mr.  Lawrence  has  shown  extreme  and 
most  laudable  diligence  in  the  collection  of  materials, 
but  unfortunately  the  artistic  skill  to  combine  and  put 
them  to  advantage  was  wanting;  for  Mr.  Lawrence 
does  not  possess  the  biographic  talent  —  a  talent  which 
lies  between  those  of  the  historian  and  the  novelist,  and 
seems  in  its  perfection  to  be  as  rare  as  either  of  them. 
Accordingly  he  fails  to  make  the  due  use  of  his  materials; 
he  does  not  always  see  what  was,  as  it  were,  before  his 


20  HENRY  FIELDING 

':  *.,6yes,' He  f-a'ils  to  draw  inferences,  or  draws  erroneous 
.•.  ;  ;  .;  unes.  :Add  to  this  a  habit  of  relating  circumstances, 
;'\  I  .*'i  dccasiGnally' of' importance,  without  referring  to  any 
authority.  My  object,  then,  is  to  do  what  he  has  left 
undone;  from  his  materials  and  references  to  make 
correct  statements,  and  deduce  just,  or  at  least  probable, 
conclusions,  and  if  possible  to  represent  Henry  Fielding 
as  he  really  was.  I  have  given  these  remarks  somewhat 
of  the  biographic  form  to  keep  up  a  certain  degree  of 
interest,  and  I  will  quote  at  length  the  statements  of 
others,  and  then  examine  them  critically. 

As  Fielding  was  of  a  noble  family,  it  seems  necessary 
to  say  a  few  words  respecting  his  pedigree. 

With  some  few  exceptions,  those  genealogies  which 
run  far  back  into  the  middle  ages  are  of  a  mythic  char- 
acter; doubts  respecting  their  accuracy  will  arise  in  the 
mind  of  a  cautious  inquirer,  and  the  creative  art  of  the 
herald  be  suspected.  Perhaps  this  may  be  the  charac- 
ter of  that  of  the  noble  house  of  Denbigh,  though  there 
is  certainly  no  violent  improbability  in  the  tradition  of 
its  founder  having  been  a  knight  of  the  future  Imperial 
House  of  Hapsburg,  who,  having  lost  his  possessions  in 
his  native  Germany,  sought  fortune  in  England  in  the 
time  of  Henry  III.^  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  the 
true  glory  of  this  house  is  not  its  imperial  kindred,  but 
its  counting  among  its  members  him  of  whom  I  write. 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  21 

whose  name  seems  destined  to  live  as  long  as  Shak- 
speare's  —  that  is,  as  long  as  the  English  language  itself. 
To  proceed,  however:  by  marriage  with  sundry  English 
heiresses,  the  family  gradually  acquired  wealth  and 
lands;  and  in  1622,  Sir  William  was  created  Earl  of 
Denbigh,  and  about  two  months  later,  his  second  son, 
George,  Viscount  Callan,  in  Ireland,  with  succession  to 
the  earldom  of  Desmond.  This  earl's  eldest  son  after- 
wards became  Earl  of  Denbigh  on  failure  of  the  male 
line  in  the  elder  branch.  All  these  particulars,  I  need 
hardly  say,  will  be  found  in  Sir  Bernard  Burke's  Peerage. 

The  name  of  the  family  is  said  to  be  derived  from  a 
district  named  Rhein-filding,  belonging  to  the  counts  of 
Hapsburg;  and  it  is  curious  enough  that  the  sons  of  the 
first  earl  spelt  it  differently  —  the  peer  spelling  it  Feild- 
ing;  his  brother,  Henry's  grandfather.  Fielding.  There 
is  a  story,  related  as  usual  by  Mr.  Lawrence  without 
giving  any  authority,  that  Lord  Denbigh  one  day  asked 
Henry  how  it  was  that,  being  of  the  one  family,  they  spelt 
their  names  differently;  "I  cannot  tell,  my  lord,"  said 
he,  "unless  it  be  that  my  branch  of  the  family  was  the 
first  that  learned  to  spell."  The  anecdote  is  given  by 
Kippis,^  who  says  he  was  told  it  by  a  person  who  had  it 
from  one  of  Fielding's  sons;  so  it  may  be  true,  and  have 
come  from  Sir  John  Fielding. 

John,  the  fourth  son  of  the  first  Earl  of  Desmond, 


22  HENRY  FIELDING 

took  holy  orders  —  a  very  unusual  course  at  that  time 
with  the  sons  of  the  nobiUty,  or  even  of  the  gentry. 

Why  doth  the  world  scorn  that  profession 

Whose  joys  pass  speech  ?     Why  do  they  think  unfit 

That  Gentry  should  join  familie  with  it  ? 

inquires  the  indignant  muse  of  Dr.  Donne;  but  the  rea- 
son is  a  very  simple  one.  With  the  Reformation  expired 
the  rich  abbacies  and  priories,  and  bishopricks  were 
shorn  of  their  wealth  and  splendour;  and  though  the 
presentation  to  most  livings  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
aristocracy,  the  imperfect  state  of  agriculture  made 
them  of  small  value.  There  was  little  then  but  the  rare 
inducement  of  genuine  piety  and  love  of  God's  name  to 
induce  the  well-born  to  enter  the  Church.  In  the  fol- 
lowing century  the  Church,  like  every  other  part  of 
society,  advanced  in  wealth,  and  it  then  felt  no  lack  of 
gentle  blood  among  its  members. 

Before  we  quit  the  Fielding  family  in  general,  it  may 
be  as  well  to  mention  that  a  niece  of  this  high-born  di- 
vine was  married  to  the  Duke  of  Kingston,  and  that  the 
daughter  of  this  lady  was  the  celebrated  Lady  Mary 
Wortley  Montague,  who  was  thus  second  cousin  to 
Henry  Fielding. 

Dr.  Fielding,  as  Nichols,  in  his  History  of  Leicester- 
shire^ informs  us,  was  chaplain  to  King  William,  dean 
(archdeacon  ^.)  of  Dorset,  and  a  canon    of    Salisbury 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  23 

Cathedral;  he  died,  I  beheve,  in  1697.  By  his  mar- 
riage with  Bridget,  daughter  of  Scipio  Cockain,  Esq., 
of  Somersetshire,  he  had  a  numerous  family.  His 
youngest  son,  Edmund,  born,  as  we  shall  see,  in  1676, 
entered  the  army  in  the  reign  of  King  William;  but 
neither  money  nor  family  influence  seems  to  have  done 
much  for  him  at  first,  for  according  to  Nichols  he  was 
only  a  lieutenant  when  (1706.^)  he  married  Sarah,  daugh- 
ter of  Sir  Henry  Gould,  Knt.,  of  Sharpham  Park,  near 
Glastonbury,  in  Somerset,  one  of  the  Justices  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas.  And  here  I  cannot  refrain 
from  making  a  conjecture.  It  is  well  known  that  Field- 
ing —  like  Smollet,  Goldsmith,  and  so  many  others  — 
gives  in  his  novels  sundry  traits  of  his  personal  and 
family  history.  It  seems  to  me,  then,  not  improbable 
that  the  match  may  have  been  a  stolen  one;  and  that 
in  the  nearly  secret  marriage  of  Lieutenant  Booth  with 
Amelia,  and  the  subsequent  forgiveness  of  the  young 
couple  by  her  mother,  and  her  taking  them  to  reside 
with  her,  we  may  have  an  adumbration  of  the  marriage 
of  Lieutenant  Fielding  with  Sarah  Gould,  and  the  for- 
giveness of  her  father.  It  is  certain  that  their  first  child, 
the  subject  of  these  pages,  was  born  at  Sharpham  Park 
on  the  22nd  of  April,  1707;  and  it  is  therefore  highly 
probable  that  Mrs.  Fielding  had  hitherto  kept  house  for 
her  father,  and  that  she  continued  to  do  so,  while  her 


24  HENRY  FIELDING 

husband  must  have  been  pretty  generally  in  quarters  or 
on  service  with  his  regiment;  for  the  War  of  the  Suc- 
cession was  at  this  time  at  its  very  height. 

We  find,  in  Warner's  History  of  Glastonbury,  that 
Sir  Henry  Gould  died  on  the  26th  of  March,  1710.  By 
his  will,  made  in  May,  1708  —  which  is  in  Doctors' 
Commons,  whither  none  of  the  biographers  have  re- 
sorted —  he  devises  to  his  daughter,  Sarah  Fielding,  the 
sum  of  iJ^3000,  to  be  held  in  trust  for  her  and  her  children 
by  his  son,  William  Day  Gould,  and  to  be  invested  in 
college  leases  or  inheritance  for  her  sole  use;  her  hus- 
band, says  the  will,  "to  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,"  her 
own  receipt  to  be  given  for  interest,  &c.^  Hence  we 
may  infer  that  the  old  judge  had  but  a  mean  opinion  of 
the  prudence  at  least  of  his  military  son-in-law,  perhaps 
had  no  great  regard  for  him;  and  this  gives  probability 
to  the  supposition  that  the  match  was  not  much  to  his 
liking. 

It  is  probable  that  this  money  was  laid  out  at  once 
in  the  purchase  of  a  little  property  at  East  Stour,  near 
Shaftsbury,  in  Dorsetshire,  for  Sarah  Fielding  was  born 
there  in  the  following  month  of  November.  If  it  was, 
as  Murphy  says,  of  the  value  of  ;^200  a  year,  the  pur- 
chase would  seem  to  have  been  an  advantageous  one; 
for  that  was  seven  per  cent,  for  the  money.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  land,  at  least  the  greater  part  of  it,  was  let. 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  25 

and  that  Captain  Fielding  (as  he  was  then,  we  may 
suppose)  and  his  family  only  occupied  the  house. 

Hutchins  gives,  in  his  History  of  Dorsetshire,  from 
the  parish  register  of  East  Stour,  the  following  particu- 
lars respecting  the  births  and  deaths  in  the  Fielding 
family  while  resident  in  that  parish: — 

Baptisms 
Sarah,  daughter  of  Hon.  Edmund  Fielding,  born  Nov.  8,  baptized  Nov.  23,  1710. 

Anne born  June  i,  baptized  June  22,  1 71 3. 

Beatrice baptized  July  29,   1714. 

Edmund,  son baptized  April  22,  1716. 

Deaths 
Anne,  daughter  of  Hon.  Edmund  Fielding,  August  6, 1716. 
Sarah,  wife,  &c April  10,  171 8. 

I  should  suppose  that  in  matters  of  this  nature  there 
can  be  no  authority  superior  to  that  of  a  parish  register, 
yet  Mr.  Lawrence,  who  was  acquainted  with  the  work 
of  Hutchins,  prefers  the  authority  of  Murphy,  and  gives 
the  names  of  the  children  as  follows,  and  in  the  following 
order  —  Catherine,  Ursula,  Sarah,  Beatrice,  giving  thus 
four  instead  of  three  daughters,  and  making  Sarah  the 
third,  while,  I  may  here  observe,  on  Sarah's  monument 
in  the  Abbey-church  in  Bath,  put  up  by  "her  friend," 
Dr.  John  Hoadly,  she  is  said  to  have  been  the  ''second 
daughter  of  General  Henry  Fielding,"  and  her  birth  is 
placed  in  17 14.     It  may  be,  however,  that  a  daughter 


26  HENRY  FIELDING 

of  whom  we  have  no  account  was  born  and  died  at 
Sharpham  Park. 

Of  these  children,  Sarah  became  distinguished  as  a 
scholar  and  as  an  author.  She  wrote  the  novel  of  David 
Simple,^  and  a  work  named  The  Cry;  and  she  translated 
Xenophon's  Memorabilia  from  the  Greek.  Of  Beatrice 
we  know  nothing  more.  Edmund,  Murphy  says,  en- 
tered the  navy,  and  Mr.  Lawrence  adds  that  he  died 
young. 

Henry,  as  we  may  see,  was  not  quite  eleven  years  old 
when  he  lost  his  mother.  According  to  Murphy  he  had 
hitherto  received  his  literary  instruction  from  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Oliver  (the  family  chaplain,  adds  Mr.  Lawrence), 
probably  the  curate  of  the  parish^  (for  East  Stour  is 
only  a  curacy),  whose  adulation  of  his  high-born  parish- 
ioner we  may  observe  in  the  preceding  extract.  He  is 
said  by  Murphy  to  have  been  the  original  of  his  pupil's 
"Parson  TruUiber,"  whom  he  may  no  doubt  have  re- 
sembled in  person;  but  I  am  slow  to  concede  any  further 
likeness  between  him  and  that  vulgar,  ignorant,  sacerdo- 
tal pig-dealer;  for  he  seems  to  have  qualified  his  pupil 
for  admission  to  Eton,  whither  he  was  sent,  probably 
soon  after  the  death  of  his  mother.  Here  I  must  remark 
that  in  this  portion  of  Fielding's  history  neither  Murphy 
nor  Mr.  Lawrence  makes  the  slightest  allusion  to  East 
Stour,  and  they  leave  us  to  suppose  (as  I  did  till  I  insti- 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  27 

tuted  this  inquiry)  that  Sharpham  Park  was  the  prop- 
erty and  residence  of  General  (?)  Fielding. 

At  Eton,  Fielding  was  the  contemporary  of  William 
Pitt,  Henry  Fox,  George  (afterwards  Lord)  Lyttleton, 
Sir  Charles  Hanbury  Williams,  and  Mr.  Winnington. 
Whether  he  was  intimate  or  not  with  the  first  two  we  are 
not  informed;  but  the  last  three,  especially  Lyttleton, 
were  his  firm  friends  through  life.  He  must  while  at 
Eton  have  applied  himself  very  closely  to  his  studies, 
for  his  literary  works  prove  him  to  have  been  familiar 
with  all  the  best  writers  of  Greece  and  Rome;  and  even 
supposing  him  not  to  have  read  many  of  them  till  at  a 
later  period,  the  mastery  of  the  classic  languages  which 
enabled  him  to  do  so  must  have  been  acquired  at  Eton. 
He  remained  there  till  he  was  about  eighteen,  when, 
his  destination  being  the  law  (probably  through  his  ma- 
ternal connexions),  he  was,  as  was  then  the  usage,  sent 
to  Leyden  to  attend  lectures  on  the  civil  law,  prepara- 
tory to  his  study  of  the  law  of  England.  Murphy  says 
that  while  there  he  studied  hard.  The  place  no  doubt 
offered  little  inducement  to  anything  else,  but  we  have 
his  own  word  for  it  that  he  sketched  at  least  one  comedy 
at  this  time.  After  a  residence  of  about  two  years, 
either  the  conclusion  of  his  studies,  or,  as  Murphy  says, 
the  failure  of  remittances,  made  him  determine  on 
returning  to  England. 


28  HENRY  FIELDING 

Fielding  reappeared  in  his  native  country  in  1727. 
He  was  then  twenty  years  of  age,  vigorous  in  both  mind 
and  body,  tall  and  handsome,  endowed  with  mental 
powers  of  a  high  order,  but  unfortunately  very  slenderly 
furnished  with  the  gifts  of  fortune.  His  father,  who 
had  married  a  second  time  not  long  after  the  death  of 
his  first  wife,  had  agreed.  Murphy  states,  to  allow  him 
;^200  a  year;  but  which,  as  he  adds,  Fielding  himself 
used  to  say,  "anybody  might  pay  that  would;"  so  he 
had  no  choice,  "as  he  said  himself,"  reports  his  lively 
kinswoman.  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montague,  "but  to  be 
a  hackney-writer  or  a  hackney-coachman."  But  the 
extract  given  above  from  the  will  of  Judge  Gould 
throws  some  doubt  on  this  account.  Fielding  had  really 
no  claim  on  his  father,  who  had  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  the  East  Stour  property,  and  had  probably  little 
beyond  his  pay,  unless  he  got  a  fortune  with  his  second 
wife;  and  I  should  suppose  that  on  coming  of  age  he 
could  have  claimed  his  share  of  his  mother's  fortune. 
This,  however,  perhaps  he  did  not;  and  it  is  possible 
that  he  let  his  father  receive  the  rent  of  East  Stour,  and 
manfully  resolved  to  battle  fortune  single-handed;  and 
he  fixed  on  the  drama  as  apparently  the  surest  road  to 
literary  fame  and  profit.  We  must  not,  however,  infer, 
as  his  biographers  might  lead  us  to  do,  that  he  was  at 
once  reduced  to  these  straits;    for  though  his  first  play 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  29 

was  brought  out  soon  after  his  return  from  Holland, 
there  was  an  interval  of  full  two  years  between  that  and 
his  second.  It  would  also  appear  that  he  was  at  this  time 
in  the  habit  of  making  visits  to  his  friends  or  relations 
in  the  country.     Thus,  among  his  Poems  there  is  one 

entitled  "  A  description  of  U n  G (alias  Hog's 

Norton),  in  county  Hants,  written  to  a  young  lady  in  the 
year  1728."  And  it  is  evident  that  he  wrote  it  from 
that  place. 

I  may  here  observe,  for  the  sake  of  future  inquirers, 

that  U n  G is  evidently  Upton  Grey  (of  Hog's 

Norton  I  know  nothing),  a  parish  a  few  miles  south-west 
of  Odiham.  The  poem  is  a  humourous  description  of 
the  dilapidated  condition  of  the  house  in  which  Fielding 
was  residing,  with  whose  owner  he  was  perhaps  on  a 
visit.  As  it  was  probably  the  only  residence,  much 
above  a  mere  farm-house,  in  the  parish,  it  may  have 
been  Hoddington  House  (did  he  form  Hog's  Norton 
from  this  .?),  and  on  the  site  of  it  have  been  built  the  pres- 
ent mansion,  the  residence  ofWm.  Lutley  Sclater,  Esq., 
which  Mr.  Clarke  informs  us,  in  his  lately  published 
Gazetteer,  "is  a  substantial  brick  house,  erected  about 
a  century  ago."  We  are  also  informed  that  Fielding 
was  on  terms  of  intimacy  with  the  father  of  the  Wartons, 
who  lived  at  Basingstoke  in  that  county. 

Another    of    Fielding's    Poems,    "Advice     to     the 


30  HENRY  FIELDING 

Nymphs  of  New  S m,"  z.  e.^  Salisbury,  was  written 

in  1730;  and  to  a  third,  "The  Queen  of  Beauty  t'other 
day,"  belonging  to  the  same  place,  is  appended  the  fol- 
lowing note  —  "The  middle  part  of  this  poem  (which 
was  writ  when  the  author  was  very  young)  was  filled 
with  the  names  of  several  young  ladies,  etc."  From 
all  this  it  is  quite  clear  —  and  it  has  never,  I  believe, 
been  observed  before  —  that  during  the  first  years  after 
his  return  from  Holland,  Fielding  was  not  obliged  to 
drudge  for  his  daily  bread  in  London.  I  am  strongly 
inclined  to  think  that  his  father,  who  must  have  left 
East  Stour  before  or  soon  after  his  marriage,  for  there 
are  no  more  entries  in  the  parish  register,  may  have 
settled  at  Salisbury;  for  there  is  a  constant  tradition 
there  that  Fielding  resided  at  a  place  named  Milford, 
about  a  mile  from  that  city,  and  even  in  it,  at  the  corner 
of  the  Friary  in  St.  Anne-street.  Now  as  we  know  that 
it  is  utterly  impossible  that  Fielding  himself  could  ever 
have  had  a  residence  in  or  near  Salisbury,  and  the  tra- 
dition is  perhaps  not  utterly  baseless,  the  probability  is 
that  his  father  may  have  lived  in  one  or  in  both  of  those 
places;  and  that  it  was  when  visiting  him  that  Henry 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Misses  Craddock  and 
other  young  ladies  of  Salisbury.  I  may  here  observe  en 
passant^  that  my  own  associations  with  Salisbury  are  of 
a  most  agreeable  nature.     Having  applied  for  informa- 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  31 

tion  on  my  present  subject  to  one  high  in  the  cathedral 
hierarchy,  the  ripply  was  a  most  warm  invitation  to  his 
house;  and  when  there,  I  was  introduced  to  the  vener- 
able Canon  Greenley,  and  all  others  who  could  assist 
me,  which  assistance  was  most  cheerfully  accorded. 

To  this  period  of  Fielding's  life  may,  I  think,  be 
assigned  the  following  event,  unknown  to  all  preceding 
biographers,  and  first  related  by  Mr.  Lawrence,  but 
where  he  got  it  I  am  utterly  unable  to  divine;  for,  more 
suo,  he  gives  no  authority  or  reference. 

On  his  return  from  Leyden  (he  tells  us)  he  conceived  a  desperate  attachment  for 
his  cousin,  Miss  Sarah  Andrew.  The  young  lady's  friends  had,  however,  so  little  con- 
fidence in  her  wild  kinsman,  that  they  took  the  precaution  of  removing  her  out  of  his 
reach;  not,  it  is  said,  until  he  had  attempted  an  abduction  or  elopement.  .  .  .  His 
cousin  was  afterwards  married  to  a  plain  country  gentleman,  and  in  that  alliance  found 
perhaps  more  solid  happiness  than  she  would  have  experienced  in  an  early  and  im- 
provident marriage  with  her  gifted  kinsman.  Her  image,  however,  was  never  effaced 
from  his  recollection,  and  there  is  a  charming  picture  (so  tradition  tells)  of  her  luxuriant 
beauty  in  the  portrait  of  Sophia  Western  in  Tom  Jones. 

Mr.  Lawrence's  work  was  noticed  in  the  AthencBum 
of  Nov.  loth,  1855,  and  in  the  very  next  number  of  that 
journal  appeared  the  following  communication  from 
Mr.  George  Roberts,  author  of  the  History  of  Lyme 
Regis: — 

Henry  Fielding  was  at  Lyme  Regis,  Dorsetshire,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  off 
an  heiress.  Miss  Andrew,  the  daughter  of  Solomon  Andrew,  Esq.,  the  last  of  a  series 
of  merchants  of  that  name  at  Lyme.  The  young  lady  was  living  with  Mr.  Andrew 
Tucker,  one  of  the  Corporation,  who  sent  her  away  to  Modbury  in  South  Devon,  where 
she  married  an  ancestor  of  the  present  Rev.  Mr.  Rhodes,  of  Bath,  who  possesses  the 


32  HENRY  FIELDING 

Andrew  property.  The  circumstances  about  the  attempt  of  Henry  Fielding  to  carry 
off  the  young  lady,  handed  down  in  the  ancient  Tucker  family,  were  doubted  by  the 
ate  Dr.  Rhodes,  of  Shapwick,  &c.  Since  his  death,  I  have  found  an  entry  in  the  old 
archives  of  Lyme  about  the  fears  of  Andrew  Tucker,  Esq.,  as  to  his  safety,  owing  to 
the  behaviour  of  Henry  Fielding  and  his  attendant  or  man.  According  to  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  Tucker  family,  Sophia  Western  was  intended  to  portray  Miss  Andrew. 

Here  we  have  certainly  a  full  confirmation  of  Mr. 
Lawrence's  account,  with  the  exception  of  the  relation- 
ship of  the  parties;  and  it  makes  us  the  more  anxious 
to  know  how  he  came  by  it.  Mr.  Lawrence  further 
observes,  that  "amongst  his  miscellaneous  poems  there 
appears  an  imitation  or  'modernization,'  as  he  calls  it, 
of  the  Sixth  Satire  of  Juvenal,  which  he  tells  us  was 
originally  'sketched  out  before  he  was  twenty,'  and 
'was  all  the  revenge  taken  by  an  injured  lover.'  " 
He  is  perhaps  correct  in  his  inference  that  this  is  the 
circumstance  alluded  to;  but  in  that  case,  unless  Field- 
ing's memory  deceived  him,  he  must  have  returned 
from  Holland  a  year  earlier  than  is  stated  by  Murphy. 
It  would  also  seem  as  if  he  really  had  some  ill-treatment 
on  the  part  of  the  lady  to  complain  of,  for  otherwise  he, 
who  was  the  most  placable  of  men,  would  never  have 
expressed  himself  in  such  terms  after  the  lapse  of  more 
than  a  dozen  years.  The  idea  of  Miss  Andrew  having 
been  the  model  of  Sophia  Western  must  be  at  once 
rejected,  for  we  know  she  is  the  portrait  of  his  adored 
first  wife. 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  33 

[Certainly  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  cir- 
cumstances relating  to  Fielding  which  have  lately  come 
to  light,  is  the  attempted  abduction  of  Miss  Andrew  of 
Lyme  Regis.  If  the  allusion,  as  is  most  probable,  is  to 
her  in  his  modernization  of  Juvenal's  Sixth  Satire,  and 
his  memory  did  not  deceive  him,  Fielding  must  have 
left  Leyden  before  the  end  of  1726,  and  not  of  1727,  as 
Murphy  states;  but  how  could  he  be  so  soon  after  in  a 
place  so  distant  from  London  as  Lyme  Regis  ?  Even 
supposing,  as  Mr.  Lawrence  asserts,  that  Miss  Andrew 
was  his  cousin,  she  was  living  with  a  family  with  which 
he  probably  had  not  even  an  acquaintance.  But  the 
tradition  of  Lyme  appears  to  know  nothing  of  this 
relationship,  and  unless  a  knowledge  of  it  is  preserved 
in  the  Rhodes  family,  whence  Mr.  Lawrence  may  have 
obtained  it,  I  see  no  proof  of  it]. 

[At  all  events  it  could  hardly  have  been  at  Lyme 
that  Fielding  first  met  Miss  Andrew  after  his  return 
to  England;  and  my  hypothesis  is,  that  she  was  on  a 
visit  with  some  friends  at  Salisbury,  which  is  about  sixty 
miles  from  Lyme,  when  Fielding  first  went  down  to  that 
city.  He  probably  made  very  ardent  love  to  her,  and 
she  favoured  his  addresses;  a  correspondence  was  of 
course  kept  up  after  her  return  home,  and  she  consented 
to  an  elopement.  Their  plan  was  frustrated,  and  she 
may,  at  the  desire  of  her  guardian,  have  written  to  break 


34  HENRY  FIELDING 

off  the  engagement,  and  thus  have  excited  the  ire  of  the 
disappointed  lover,  v^hich  v^ould  be  still  greater  on  the 
supposition  of  her  having  given  her  hand  to  Mr.  Rhodes 
immediately  after.  Should  this  hypothesis  be  the  truth, 
it  forms  one  link  more  of  the  chain  connecting  Fielding 
w^ith  Salisbury,  which  city  is  evidently  also  the  abode 
of  Amelia  and  her  family]. 

Fielding's  first  play.  Love  in  several  Masques,  a  regu- 
lar five-act  comedy,  was  brought  out  in  February, 
1727-28.  Wilks,  Cibber,  and  Mrs.  Oldfield  performed 
in  it,  and  the  play  had  a  very  fair  share  of  success, 
though  coming  immediately  after  the  Provoked Husbandy 
and  though  the  Beggar  s  Opera  was  in  full  career,  mak- 
ing Rich  gay  and  Gay  rich.  In  a  modest  and  rather 
graceful  prologue  he  alludes  to  this  circumstance;  and, 
what  may  to  some  cause  a  little  surprise,  plumes  himself 
on  the  decorum  of  his  scenes,  which,  he  says,  are  char- 
acterized by 

Humour,  still  free  from  an  indecent  flame, 

Which,  should  it  raise  your  mirth,  must  raise  your  shame. 

Indecency's  the  bane  to  ridicule, 

And  only  charms  the  libertine  or  fool. 

Nought  shall  offend  the  fair  one's  ears  to-day. 

Which  they  might  blush  to  hear  or  blush  to  say. 

And  the  claim  is  tolerably  just,  for  with  the  exception 
of  one  scene,  there  is  little  to  reprehend  on  the  score  of 
indecorum. 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  35 

When  printing  it,  he  dedicated  it  to  his  distinguished 
kinswoman,  who  had  read  it  in  manuscript,  and  twice 
honoured  its  representation  with  her  presence.  In  his 
preface  he  notices  his  youth;  "for  I  believe,"  says  he, 
"I  may  boast  that  none  ever  appeared  so  early  on  the 
stage."  In  this,  however,  he  was  in  error,  for  though  it 
is  true  he  was  not  yet  of  age,  Wycherley  and  Farquhar 
had  made  full  as  early  an  appearance,  to  say  nothing  of 
Calderon,  who  wrote  his  first  play  before  he  was  four- 
teen years  of  age. 

His  next  play,  the  Temple  Beau,  was  first  acted  in 
January,  1729-30,  and  the  same  year  he  produced  three 
other  pieces.  Space  does  not  permit  me  to  enter  into 
the  details  of  his  dramatic  career.  Let  it  suffice  to 
observe  that  in  the  course  of  five  years — 1730-34  —  he 
wrote  seventeen  dramatic  pieces;  and  as  only  one  of 
them  proved  a  total  failure,  and  at  a  later  period  he 
speaks  ofi^50  as  a  very  small  result  from  one  of  his  plays, 
we  may  fairly  infer  that  each  of  these  pieces,  one  with 
another,  produced  him  more  than  that  sum.  Supposing 
them  to  have  averaged  no  more  than  i^75,  he  would  have 
received  from  the  theatres  during  those  five  years  iJ^i200, 
or  more  than  ;^200  a  year  —  a  sum  which,  had  he  been 
prudent  (which  we  know  he  was  not),  might  have  sup- 
ported him  in  independence.  But  in  truth  I  may  be 
much  understating  his  income,  for  it  is  very  possible 


36  HENRY  FIELDING 

that  when  the  bookseller  in  Joseph  Andrews  says  he 
knew  of  a  hundred  guineas  being  given  for  a  play,  the 
allusion  may  be  to  one  of  Fielding's  own  pieces;  for  there 
were  not,  I  believe,  any  of  superior  merit  to  his  brought 
out  during  the  period  of  his  dramatic  career. 

[I  doubt  if  I  was  justified  in  supposing  that  a  pub- 
lisher may  have  given  a  hundred  guineas  for  a  play  of 
Fielding's;  it  is  probably  some  very  popular  play  of  an 
earlier  period  that  is  meant,  such  as  the  Provoked  Hus- 
band or  the  Beggar  s  Opera.  Fielding  may  have  gotten 
for  his  plays  various  sums,  as  ;^20,  ^^30,  and  even  £^0: 
but  hardly  more]. 

The  truth  is,  during  these  years  Fielding  led  a  life 
of  great  dissipation.  The  tavern  and  the  brothel  were 
both  familiar  to  him,  as  he  confesses  in  an  anecdote  he 
relates  in  his  Amelia;  and  by  the  disease  of  which  the 
hero  of  his  journey  from  this  World  to  the  Next  dies, 
and  the  lady  to  whom  he  pays  his  respects  in  the  City  of 
Diseases,  he  plainly  intimates  that  his  constitution  had 
been  seriously  damaged  by  these  early  excesses.  The 
same  personage  (i.  e.,  Fielding  himself),  at  his  entrance 
into  Elysium,  says: — 

I  confessed  I  had  indulged  myself  very  freely  with  wine  and  women  in  my 
youth,  but  had  never  done  an  injury  to  any  man  living,  nor  avoided  an  opportunity 
of  doing  good;  that  I  pretended  to  very  little  virtue  more  than  general  philanthropy 
and  private  friendship  — .  I  was  proceeding,  when  Minos  bid  me  enter  the  gate,  and 
not  indulge  myself  with  trumpeting  forth  my  virtues. 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  37 

It  has  often,  also,  appeared  to  me  that  in  these  fol- 
lowing words  of  Heartfort,  in  the  Weddtng-Day  (volume 
3),  Fielding  may  have  had  his  own  case  in  view: — 

My  practice,  perhaps,  is  not  equal  to  my  theory,  but  I  pretend  to  sin  with  as 
little  mischief  as  I  can  to  others.  And  this  I  can  lay  my  hand  on  my  heart  and  af- 
firm, that  I  never  seduced  a  young  woman  to  her  ruin,  nor  a  married  one  to  the 
misery  of  her  husband. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  in  Fielding's  code  of  mor- 
ality those  youthful  excesses  to  which  he  pleads  guilty 
ranked  only  as  venial  offences,  and  he  viewed  them  in 
himself  and  others  with  a  gentle  eye.  Neither  in  his  own 
writings  nor  in  Murphy's  Essay  do  we  find  the  slightest 
hint  of  his  ever  having  been  addicted  to  the  fashionable 
vice  of  gaming.  His  animal  spirits  were  too  high,  his 
organ  of  acquisitiveness  too  slightly  developed,  to  suffer 
him  to  waste  his  time  on  cards  and  dice.  I  may  further 
observe  that  there  is  nothing  in  his  own  works  or  in 
Murphy's  which  might  lead  us  to  suppose  that  at  this 
or  any  other  period  of  his  life  he  kept  low  company; 
there  is  no  knowledge  shown  by  him  of  the  language  and 
habits  of  the  lower  classes  that  a  gentleman  might  not 
have  obtained  without  descending  from  his  position. 

The  reader  must  be  aware  that  dress  in  those  days 
was  of  a  far  more  valuable  and  expensive  nature  than 
it  is  at  present;  it  may  be  added  that  the  ordinary  un- 
dress was  of  a   much  coarser  kind  than  anything  now 


38  HENRY  FIELDING 

worn  by  any  person  in  decent  circumstances.  Fielding, 
for  example,  tells  us  that  Tom  Jones  when  he  entered 
London  was  habited  in  fustian.  As  a  consequence,  with 
imprudent  men  like  our  hero,  the  gaudy  plumage  was 
often  in  the  hands  of  the  pawnbroker.  Mr.  Lawrence 
quotes  the  following  lines  from  a  contemporary  satire : — 

F g  who  yesterday  appeared  so  rough, 

Clad  in  coarse  frieze,  and  plastered  down  with  snuff; 
See  how  his  instant  gaudy  trappings  shine! 
What  playhouse  bard  was  ever  seen  so  fine  ? 
But  this  not  from  his  humour  flows,  you'll  say, 
But  mere  necessity  —  for  last  night  lay 
In  pawn  the  velvet  which  he  wears  to-day. 

Murphy  would  seem  to  hint  that  Fielding  received 
pecuniary  aid  from  sundry  noble  personages.  "The 
severity  of  the  public,"  says  he,  "and  the  malice  of  his 
enemies,  met  with  a  noble  alleviation  from  the  patron- 
age of  the  late  Duke  of  Richmond,  John,  Duke  of  Argyle, 
the  late  Duke  of  Roxborough,  and  many  other  persons 
of  distinguished  rank  and  character,  among  whom  may 
be  numbered  the  present  Lord  Lyttleton,  etc.;"  and 
hence  Mr.  Lawrence,  with  one  of  his  customary  flights 
of  imagination,  talks  of  him  "now  dining  at  the  tables 
of  the  great,  and  quaffing  champagne  in  ducal  banquet- 
halls;  and  now  seeking  out  the  cheapest  ordinary;  or 
if  dinner  were  impossible,  solacing  himself  with  a  pipe 
of  tobacco." 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  39 

In  this  sketch  of  mine  I  shall  frequently  have  to  per- 
form the  part  of  the  critic  rather  than  of  the  biographer. 
I  must  here,  then,  state  that  Murphy  did  not  write  his 
essay  till  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  this 
period  of  Fielding's  career,  and  that  he  is  exceedingly 
careless  and  inexact  in  his  statements.  The  only  one 
of  those  three  dukes  with  whom  we  find  Fielding  at  all 
in  contact  was  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  to  whom  he  dedi- 
cated his  Miser  in  1733,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 
dedication  which  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  he  was 
personally  acquainted  with,  much  less  under  pecuniary 
obligations  to  that  noble  lord.  As  to  Lyttleton  he  was 
the  schoolfellow  of  Fielding,  whose  junior  he  was  by 
about  a  year;  and  there  is  certainly  no  improbability  in 
supposing  that  out  of  the  liberal  allowance  made  him 
by  his  father  —  who,  by  the  way,  lived  nearly  as  long 
as  Fielding  himself —  he  may  have  occasionally  relieved 
the  necessities  of  his  well-born  but  poor  and  extravagant 
fellow-Etonian.  I  consider,  on  the  whole,  the  charge 
made  against  Fielding,  of  having  taxed  the  bounty  of 
his  noble  friends  in  the  period  from  1728  to  1735,  to  be, 
in  Scottish  law-parlance,  not  proven.  It  may  be  true, 
it  may  be  false;  we  know  nothing. 

The  spring  of  1735  forms  an  important  era  in  the 
life  of  Fielding.  I  must  here  let  Murphy  speak,  and 
then  examine  his  statements: — 


40  HENRY  FIELDING 

Mr.  Fielding  (says  he,  then)  had  not  been  long  a  writer  for  the  stage  when  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Craddock,  a  beauty  from  Salisbury.  About  that  time,  his  mother  dying,  a 
moderate  estate  at  Stour,  in  Dorsetshire,  devolved  to  him.  To  that  place  he  retired 
with  his  wife,  on  whom  he  doated,  with  a  resolution  to  bid  adieu  to  all  the  follies  and 
intemperances  to  which  he  had  addicted  himself  in  the  career  of  a  town  life.  But  un- 
fortunately a  kind  of  family  pride  here  gained  an  ascendant  over  him,  and  he  began 
immediately  to  vie  in  splendour  with  the  neighbouring  country  squires.  With  an  estate 
not  much  above  £200  a  year,  and  his  wife's  fortune,  which  did  not  exceed  ;(Ji500,  he 
encumbered  himself  with  a  large  retinue  of  servants,  all  clad  in  costly  yellow  liveries. 
For  their  master's  honour,  these  people  could  not  descend  so  low  as  to  be  careful  in 
their  apparel,  but  in  a  month  or  two  were  unfit  to  be  seen;  the  squire's  dignity  required 
that  they  should  be  new  equipped;  and  his  chief  pleasure  consisting  in  society  and  con- 
vivial mirth,  hospitality  threw  open  his  doors,  and  in  less  than  three  years,  entertain- 
ments, hounds,  and  horses  entirely  devoured  a  little  patrimony  which,  had  it  been  man- 
aged with  economy,  might  have  secured  him  an  independence  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  etc. 

This  statement  of  Murphy  'when  critically  examined 
will,  if  I  mistake  not,  prove  to  be  a  mere  tissue  of  error 
and  inconsistency.  The  very  opening  sentence  is  incor- 
rect, and  likely  to  lead  astray;  for  "  had  not  been  long" 
hardly  applies  to  a  period  of  seven  years;  and  "from 
Salisbury,"  would  seem  to  intimate  that  it  was  in  some 
other  place  than  Salisbury  that  Fielding  met  with  his 
wife.  His  mother,  as  we  have  seen,  died  in  1718,  when 
he  was  only  eleven  years  old.  The  house  at  East  Stour 
(of  which  an  engraving  may  be  seen  in  Hutchins's 
Dorset)  was  merely  a  tolerably  respectable  farm-house, 
in  which  it  was  hardly  possible  to  give  splendid  entertain- 
ments, or  maintain  "a  large  retinue  of  servants." 
Hutchins,  in  fact,  says  that  what  was  the  kitchen  in  his 
time  had  been  Fielding's  parlour.     And  finally,  as  the 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  41 

Fielding  arms  are  argent  and  azure,  the  liveries  must 
have  been  white,  not  yellov^,  and  the  v^aistcoat  and  small- 
clothes blue.  But  above  all:  instead  of  three  years, 
Fielding  v^as  not  even  one  year  a  resident  at  East  Stour. 
The  dedication  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  of  his 
play  of  The  Universal  Gallant,  is  dated  from  Bucking- 
ham-street (Strand?),  Feb.  12,  i734-35»  so  that  at  the 
earliest  he  could  not  have  been  married  at  Salisbury 
till  toward  the  end  of  that  month  (the  parish  registers  of 
Salisbury  have  been  searched  in  vain  for  an  entry  of  the 
marriage);  and  as  he  was  in  the  spring  of  the  following 
year  at  the  head  of  a  theatrical  association  in  London, 
and  must  have  been  there  some  time  previously  arrang- 
ing it,  we  are  hardly  justified  in  allowing  more  than  nine 
or  ten  months  for  his  residence  at  Stour  —  a  short  time 
for  running  through  ;^I500  and  ;{^200  a  year!  It  may 
also  be  added  that  a  pack  of  hounds  cannot  be  impro- 
vised, and  that  the  Dorset  squires  had  probably  too  much 
pride  to  accept  the  invitations  of  one  whom  they  affected 
to  despise.  As  to  Murphy's  error  with  respect  to  the 
length  of  Fielding's  residence,  I  think  it  is  capable  of  a 
simple  and  easy  solution,  which  shall  be  given  in  the 
sequel. 

[It  may,  I  think,  now  be  considered  that  Murphy's 
romance  of  Fielding's  three  years'  career  of  extravagance 
in  Dorsetshire,  his  hounds,  his  horses,  his  retinue  of 


42  HENRY  FIELDING 

liveried  servants,  his  open-housekeeping,  has  been  proved 
to  be  a  nearly  baseless  fiction.  But  the  wonder  is, 
that  his  family  let  it  go  uncontradicted.  His  brother 
John,  to  be  sure,  was  but  a  lad  at  the  time,  and  may 
have  known  nothing  about  it;  but  his  sister  Sarah  was 
then  four-and-twenty,  and  she  lived  some  years  after 
the  appearance  of  Murphy's  Essay.  Yet  this  incubus 
has  lain  on  Fielding's  memory  for  nearly  a  century, 
and  has  mainly  contributed  to  lower  his  moral  char- 
acter. What  led  me  to  suppose  that  he  was  only  nine 
or  ten  months  in  the  country  was  the  probability  that  he 
did  not  give  up  the  house  till  the  25th  of  March;  he 
may  not  have  encumbered  himself  with  the  land.  We 
are  also  to  recollect  that  he  had  to  give  his  sister  her 
share  of  the  income,  unless  he  paid  her  off  out  of  his 
wife's  fortune;   which,  however,  is  not  very  likely]. 

[I  must  here  confess  that  I  was  probably  in  error 
with  respect  to  Fielding's  liveries.  I  had  always  under- 
stood that  it  was  a  maxim  in  heraldry  that  the  colours 
of  the  livery  should  be  the  same  as  those  of  the  coat  of 
arms,  and  hence  I  took  it  for  granted  that  the  Fielding 
liveries  must  have  been  white  and  blue.  A  lady,  how- 
ever, has  written  to  me,  informing  me  that  happening 
to  dine  at  Lord  Denbigh's,  she  was  much  struck  by  the 
liveries  of  his  servants,  which  were  coat  and  small- 
clothes of  the  brightest  yellow,  with   black  waistcoat 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  43 

and  stockings,  silver  and  black  shoulder  tags,  and  silver 
garters.  On  mentioning  this  to  a  friend,  he  told  her 
that  the  Fieldings  kept  to  those  colours  to  show  their 
kindred  to  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  The  Austrian  col- 
ours, it  is  well  known,  are  yellow  and  black.  Murphy 
was  therefore  probably  right,  and  I  am  bound  to  apolo- 
gize to  his  Manes]. 

Murphy  is  content  to  blame  the  folly  of  the  husband, 
but  Mr.  Lawrence  cannot  avoid  making  a  similar  charge 
against  the  wife. 

Alas  (says  he),  it  is  to  be  feared  that  from  vanity  or  weakness  she  abetted  him  in  his 
follies,  or  at  the  most  confined  herself  to  a  timid  remonstrance  —  without  venturing  on  a 
firm  expostulation.  Poor  girl!  her  fortune  was  soon  dissipated  to  the  winds;  runaway 
with  by  horses  and  hounds;  lavished  on  yellow  plush  inexpressibles  for  idle  flunkeys; 
banqueted  on  by  foolish  squires,  or  consumed  by  other  senseless  extravagancies.  Not 
being  a  strong-minded  woman  —  that  is  pretty  clear  —  but  rather  it  would  seem  a 
fond  and  foolish  one,  she  was  dazzled  by  this  brief  dream  of  pride  and  pleasure;  and 
though  the  future  might  have  worn  to  her  eye  a  lowering  aspect,  she  was  too  much  grati- 
fied by  her  husband's  popularity,  and  too  proud  of  his  wit  and  agreeable  qualities, 
to  check  him  in  his  mad  career. 

Such  is  the  character  which  Mr.  Lawrence  ventures 
to  draw  of  the  original  of  Amelia,  and  whom  Lady  Bute, 
who  had  known  her,  declared  to  have  possessed  all  the 
perfections  there  ascribed  to  her! 

Let  us,  abandoning  fancy,  endeavour  to  form  some 
sober  and  correct  ideas  about  the  marriage  and  the  mar- 
ried life  of  Fielding.  We  have  seen  that  he  had  been  for 
many  years  well  acquainted  with  Salisbury  and  its  in- 


44  HENRY  FIELDING 

habitants.  Among  these  were  the  Misses  Craddock, 
three  sisters  celebrated  for  their  beauty,  and  apparently 
in  independent  circumstances,  for  one  of  Fielding's 
poems  shows  that  they  resided  in  a  house  of  their  own. 
If  we  are  to  give  credit  to  the  malicious  assertion  of 
Richardson,  they  were  of  illegitimate  birth,  but  of  this 
circumstance  we  have  no  other  proof,  and  I  am  able  to 
add  that  the  tradition  of  Salisbury  knows  nothing  of  it. 
I  learned  there  that  the  Craddock  family,  which  is  now 
extinct,  was  highly  respectable,  though  not  in  the  first 
class  of  Salisbury  society.  The  fortunes  of  these  ladies 
may  have  been  of  the  amount  stated  by  Murphy.  To 
Miss  Charlotte  Craddock  —  whom  he  celebrates  in  his 
poems,  under  the  name  of  Caelia  —  Fielding  would 
appear  to  have  been  attached  for  some  years,  and  this 
length  of  service  was  probably  caused,  not  by  any  co- 
quetry on  the  part  of  the  lady,  but  by  her  observation  of 
the  imprudence  of  her  lover's  character,  and  on  his  part 
by  the  want  of  some  fixed  and  certain  source  of  income. 
This  last  obstacle,  however,  seems  to  have  been  removed 
in  1735,  when  his  father,  who  was  made  a  major-general 
this  year,  may,  on  this  accession  to  his  income,  have  re- 
signed his  first  wife's  property  to  her  children.  It  is  true 
that  Fielding  must  have  been  married  in  the  spring,  and 
that  his  father  does  not  seem  to  have  been  gazetted  till 
the  following  December;    but  the  gazette  may,  though 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  45 

not  inserted  in  the  Gentleman  s  Magazine^  where  we  find 
it,  till  the  last  month,  have  contained  all  the  promotions 
of  the  year;  or  the  general,  having  a  promise  from  the 
Government,  may  have  thought  he  could  act  on  it  with 
safety. 

In  possession  of  a  house  and  land,  and  of  a  good 
sum  of  ready  money.  Fielding  seems  to  have  resolved 
to  make  a  trial  of  country  life,  at  least  for  some  time; 
but  with  his  habits  and  feelings  it  is  hardly  possible  that 
he  could  have  contemplated  a  permanent  residence. 
We  can  easily  conceive  that  he  lost  some  money  in 
farming;  he  may  have  had  the  temerity  he  ascribes  to 
his  Booth,  of  setting  up  a  carriage,  and  have  kept  a 
hunter  or  two;  he  may  have  indulged  in  hospitality  to- 
ward some  of  his  neighbours,  and  have  had  friends  to 
visit  him  from  Salisbury;  but  that  he  should  have  run 
such  a  career  of  reckless  extravagance  as  Murphy  lays 
to  his  charge  seems  to  be  almost  impossible,  if,  as  I  have 
observed,  it  were  only  for  the  size  of  his  house.  More- 
over, the  whole  time  of  his  residence  at  East  Stour  could 
hardly,  as  we  have  seen,  have  exceeded  nine  or  ten 
months;  for  he  must  have  been  back  again  in  London 
early  in  the  year  1736,  and  that  not  without  money,  as 
he  was  able  to  take  the  Haymarket  Theatre,  and  engage 
a  dramatic  company.  It  is,  in  fact,  not  impossible  that 
it  was  the  intelligence  that  that  theatre  was  to  be  let  that 


46  HENRY  FIELDING 

drew  him  so  soon  from  the  country,  of  which  by  this 
time  he  may  have  grown  heartily  weary.  Some  time 
before  Fielding  had  left  London,  his  play  of  Don  Quix- 
ote in  England  had  been  performed  at  the  Haymarket  by 
a  volunteer  company  of  actors,  and  the  election  scenes 
in  it  had  been  applauded.  This  appears  to  have  led 
the  sanguine  author  to  fancy  that  he  could,  by  his  own 
unaided  genius,  continue  for  years  to  derive  an  income 
from  a  series  of  political  dramatic  satires  on  the  model 
of  the  celebrated  Rehearsal.  He  therefore  took  the 
theatre  in  the  Haymarket,  collected  a  corps  of  actors 
which  he  named  "The  Great  Mogul's  Company  of 
Comedians,"  and  produced  a  piece  named  Pasquin:  a 
Dramatic  Satire  on  the  Times.  This  was  the  rehearsal 
of  two  plays  —  a  comedy,  called  The  Election;  and  a 
tragedy,  called  The  Life  and  Death  of  Common  Sense. 
The  piece  was  a  hit;  its  novelty,  and  the  keenness  and 
boldness  of  the  satire,  recommended  it  to  the  public 
taste,  and  it  had  a  run  of  fifty  nights.  We  are  not  in- 
formed what  other  pieces  were  performed  this  year  at 
this  theatre;  but  The  Fatal  Curiosity,  by  the  manager's 
friend,  George  Lillo,  though  not  very  successful,  was, 
as  Mr.  Lawrence  tells  us,  one,  and  there  were  probably 
others;  at  all  events  the  profits  of  Pasquin  must  have 
yielded  the  author  sufficient  means  for  living  in  comfort 
and  respectability.     In  the  season  of  1737  he  brought 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  47 

out  a  piece  of  a  similar  nature,  entitled  The  Historical 
Register  for  1736,  in  which  he  ventured  to  introduce 
the  Minister  of  the  day,  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  a  circum- 
stance which  led  to  the  passing  of  the  celebrated  Licens- 
ing Act,  by  which  it  was  provided  that  no  dramatic  piece 
should  be  represented  without  the  license  of  the  Lord 
Chamberlain.  This  of  course  put  an  end  to  Fielding's 
theatric  project  —  a  project  which,  however,  must  soon 
have  failed  of  itself,  as  its  attraction  was  its  novelty, 
and  it  was  hardly  within  the  limits  of  human  genius  to 
be  able  to  yield  a  constant  supply  of  new  and  attractive 
political  satire.  Two  or  three  other  dramatic  efforts  of 
his  at  this  time  also  had  proved  failures,  and  he  saw 
clearly  that  for  him  to  hope  to  support  his  family  by 
his  dramatic  talent  was  preposterous.  He  accordingly 
resolved  to  devote  himself  to  the  profession  for  which  he 
was  originally  intended;  and  toward  the  close  of  the 
year,  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  his  age,  he  entered  him- 
self as  a  student  in  the  Middle  Temple.  Mr.  Lawrence 
has  given  a  copy  of  the  record  of  his  admission.  It 
runs  thus: — 

1°  Nov"^  1737- 
Henricus  Fielding  de  East  Stour  in  Com.  Dorset  Ar:  filius  et  haeres  apparens  Brig. 
Gen"'  Edmundi  Fielding  admissus  est  in  Societat:    Medij  Templi  Lond.  specialiter 
et  obligatum  una  cum,  etc. 

Et  dat  pro  fine  £4.  o.  o. 

We  may  here  observe  that  he  is  denominated  of  East 


48  HENRY  FIELDING 

Stour,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  he  still  retained 
his  property  at  that  place;  and  further  notice  the 
strange  circumstance  that  —  as  it  must  have  been  from 
himself  that  the  information  came  —  he  should  have 
styled  his  father  only  a  brigadier-general,  when,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  was  made  a  major-general  two  years  be- 
fore. Perhaps  it  was  only  an  instance  of  his  want  of 
thought.  He  may  have  been  in  the  habit  of  calling  his 
father  the  Brigadier,  and  it  may  have  slipt  from  him  on 
this  occasion. 

Of  Fielding's  career  as  a  law-student.  Murphy  gives 
the  following  account,  which  is  probably  in  the  main 
correct : — 

His  application  while  he  was  a  student  in  the  Temple  was  remarkably  intense; 
and  though  it  happened  that  the  early  taste  he  had  taken  of  pleasure  would  occasionally 
return  upon  him,  and  conspire  with  his  spirit  and  vivacity  to  carry  him  into  the  wild 
enjoyments  of  the  town,  yet  it  was  particular  in  him,  that  amidst  all  his  dissipations, 
nothing  could  suppress  the  thirst  he  had  for  knowledge  and  the  delight  he  felt  in  read- 
ing; and  this  prevailed  in  him  to  such  a  degree,  that  he  has  been  frequently  known  by 
his  intimates  to  return  late  at  night  from  a  tavern  to  his  chambers,  and  there  read  and 
make  extracts  from  the  most  abstruse  authors,  for  several  hours  before  he  went  to  bed, 
so  powerful  were  the  vigour  of  his  constitution  and  the  activity  of  his  mind. 

This,  it  may  be  seen,  is  written  with  Murphy's  usual 
vagueness  and  inaccuracy.  Fielding  could  have  had  no 
chambers  while  a  student;  and  from  the  manner  in 
which  his  reading  is  spoken  of,  it  would  seem  that  his 
midnight  studies  were  devoted  rather  to  writers  like 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  than  to  Littleton,  Coke,  and  the 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  49 

other  sages  of  the  law.  It  is,  however,  agreed  on  all 
hands  that  he  acquired  a  competent  knowledge  of  law, 
and  that  he  entered  Westminster  Hall  with  as  large  a 
stock  of  that  knowledge  as  most  of  his  contemporaries, 
when  he  was  called  to  the  bar  on  the  20th  of  June,  1740, 
and,  as  Mr.  Lawrence  informs  us,  chambers  were  as- 
signed him  in  Pump  Court. 

We  thus  see  that  Fielding  was  engaged  in  the  study 
of  the  law  for  a  period  of  two  years  and  a  half,  and  the 
question  is,  how  did  he  purchase  the  necessary  books 
and  support  his  family  all  that  time  ?  There  was  then 
no  reporting  for  newspapers,  writing  articles  for  reviews 
and  magazines,  and  the  other  modes  by  which  law- 
students  of  the  present  day  are  able  to  support  them- 
selves. He  may  have  written  an  occasional  pamphlet 
of  which  no  notice  has  reached  us;  but  it  was  not  till  the 
close  of  the  year  1739  that  he  started  a  periodical  paper, 
named  the  Champion^  in  imitation  of  the  Tatler  and  the 
Spectator,  and  from  which,  as  it  proved  tolerably  suc- 
cessful, he  derived  some  income  during  the  last  six 
months  of  his  probationary  period.  I  must  confess  that 
I  can  see  no  other  way  in  which  he  could  have  lived  than 
on  the  remains  of  his  own  and  his  wife's  property,  and 
I  would  conjecture  that  it  was  at  this  time  that  he  dis- 
posed of  his  interest  in  the  house  and  lands  at  East 
Stour,  in  which  case,  however,  he  must  have  given  his 


50  HENRY  FIELDING 

sister  Sarah  her  fair  proportion.  And  here  I  will  intro- 
duce the  promised  explanation  of  Murphy's  error  re- 
specting the  length  of  his  residence  there.  Murphy,  who 
we  have  reason  to  think  was  personally  acquainted  with 
Fielding,  may  have  heard  him  say  that  he  had  only  had 
that  property  in  his  possession  for  the  space  of  three 
years,  and  he  may  have  hastily  inferred  that  he  had  been 
residing  there  all  that  time.  Possibly  his  motive  for  com- 
mencing the  Champion  was  the  drying  up  of  that  source 
of  supply.  We  are  further  to  recollect  that  the  winter 
of  1739-40,  long  known  by  the  name  of  the  hard  frost, 
was  one  of  unparalleled  severity,  and  that  the  conse- 
quent dearness  of  provisions  must  have  taxed  the  ener- 
gies of  persons  of  slender  means  like  Fielding.  The 
success  of  the  Champion  at  such  a  time,  Mr.  Lawrence 
regards  as  a  proof  of  its  merits;  and  it  may  be  so,  but  at 
the  same  time  we  must  recollect  that  the  purchasers  of 
such  a  paper  are  persons  who  would  not  be  withheld  by 
a  rise  in  the  price  of  bread  and  coals  from  indulging 
their  inclination  for  amusement  or  instruction. 

On  being  called  to  the  bar,  Fielding  withdrew  from 
the  editorship  of  the  Champion;  but  he  continued  to  be 
an  occasional  contributor  to  it  for  a  twelvemonth  longer, 
after  which  time  the  paper  appears  to  have  ceased  to 
exist.  I  may  here  observe,  en  passant,  that  at  this  pe- 
riod Fielding  lost  his  father,  who  died  in  May,  1 741 ,  aged 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  51 

sixty-five,  having  just  lived  to  see  his  son  a  member  of 
an  honourable  profession.  He  had  himself,  as  the 
Gentleman  s  Magazine  informs  us,  attained  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-general,  and  v^as  a  colonel  of  invalids.  His 
death  brought  his  eldest  son  no  increase  of  income. 

Fielding  went  the  Western  Circuit,  of  course,  it  being 
the  one  on  which  his  connexions  lay;  he  also  for  the 
same  reason  attended  the  Wiltshire  Sessions,  and  we 
have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  did  not  get  at  least 
some  share  of  business  in  both;  we  can  hardly  doubt  of 
his  having  had  friends  among  the  Salisbury  attorneys 
at  least.  During  term  time,  as  Murphy  assures  us,  he 
was  most  assiduous  in  his  attendance  at  Westminster 
Hall;  and  I  see  no  improbability  in  the  supposition  that 
by  his  labours  at  the  bar  he  might  have  been  able  to 
have  lived  in  comfort  and  independence  had  he  not, 
probably  in  consequence  of  his  early  excesses,  become 
at  this  time  a  victim  to  the  gout,  which  often  confined 
him  to  his  bedroom  when  he  should  have  been  at  cham- 
bers or  in  court.  It  was  this  probably  that  made  him 
devote  himself  once  more  to  literature.  In  February, 
1742,  he  gave  to  the  world  Joseph  Andrews,  the  first  of 
his  imperishable  novels.  Of  this,  along  with  his  other 
works,  I  shall  give  an  account  in  the  sequel.  The  fol- 
lowing April  he  published,  but  anonymously,  a  pam- 
phlet in  defence  of  Old  Sarah,  as  she  was  called,  the 


52  HENRY  FIELDING 

Dowager-Duchess  of  Marlborough,  for  which  we  can 
hardly  doubt  he  was  paid  by  her  Grace.  The  next 
month  he  produced  on  the  stage  a  ballad-farce,  named 
Miss  Lucy  in  Town,  in  which  he  says  "he  had  but  a 
small  share,"  but  without  telling  who  was  the  coadjutor. 
Possibly  it  was  Ralph,  who  had  been  joined  with  him 
in  the  Champion.  The  seventh  night  of  its  performance 
was  the  author's  benefit,  after  which  it  was  prohibited 
by  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  because  a  particular  person 
of  quality  was  supposed  to  be  aimed  at  in  the  character 
of  Lord  Bawble,  which,  however.  Fielding  indignantly 
denied  in  a  pamphlet  which  he  published  on  the  subject. 
Some  time  in  this  year  we  find  he  was  at  Bath  —  for  in 
his  Miscellanies  there  is  a  copy  of  verses  "To  Miss  H — 
and  at  Bath,  written  extempore  in  the  pump-room, 
1742."  He  was  therefore  either  there  for  his  health,  or 
went  circuit  this  year. 

The  winter  of  1742-43  was  a  season  of  distress  to 
poor  Fielding.  Speaking  of  it  in  the  preface  to  his 
Miscellanies,  he  says — "While  I  was  last  winter  laid 
up  with  the  gout,  with  a  favourite  child  dying  in  one 
bed,  and  my  wife  in  a  condition  very  little  better  on 
another,  attended  with  other  circumstances  which  served 
as  very  proper  decorations  to  such  a  scene."  By 
these  circumstances  he  doubtless  meant  pecuniary  em- 
barrassments, and  the  child,  a  daughter,  as  we  shall  see, 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  53 

died,  for  he  meets  her  in  Elysium  in  his  Journey  to  the 
Next  World,  pubHshed  the  following  year. 

While  he  was  in  this  condition  he  was  applied  to  by 
his  friend  Garrick  for  a  play.  He  had  two  lying  by  him, 
the  Wedding-Day,  the  third  play,  he  says,  that  he  had 
written,  and  another,  which  he  intended  to  call  The 
Good-natured  Man,  both  unfinished.  The  latter  was  the 
one  he  intended  to  give,  but  finding  that  it  would  require 
a  good  deal  of  labour,  and  that  the  part  intended  for 
Garrick  was  not  a  very  important  one,  the  time,  more- 
over, being  very  short,  he  did  what  he  could  to  the 
JVedding-Day,  and  it  was  produced  on  the  17th  Feb- 
ruary, 1743.  But  though  supported  by  the  talents  of 
Garrick  and  Macklin,  and  Mesdames  Pritchard  and 
Woffington,  it  had  very  poor  success,  being  performed 
but  six  nights,  and  yielding  the  author  only  ;^50.  The 
public  taste,  in  fact,  was  altering  for  the  better,  and  the 
want  of  decorum  and  propriety  belonging  to  the  school 
of  Wycherley  and  Congreve,  which  it  displayed,  could 
no  longer  claim  toleration,  much  less  applause.  Mur- 
phy gives  the  following  anecdote  relating  to  the  first 
performance  of  this  piece: — 

An  actor  who  was  principally  concerned  in  the  piece,  and,  though  young,  was  then, 
by  the  advantage  of  happy  requisites,  an  early  favourite  of  the  public,  told  Mr.  Fielding 
he  was  apprehensive  that  the  audience  would  make  free  with  him  in  a  particular  pas- 
sage, adding  that  a  repulse  might  so  flurry  his  spirits  as  to  disconcert  him  for  the  rest 
of  the  night,  and  therefore  begged  that  it  might  be  omitted.     "No,  d-mn  'em,"  replied 


54  HENRY  FIELDING 

the  bard,  "if  the  scene  is  not  a  good  one  let  them  find  that  out."  Accordingly  the  play 
■was  brought  on  without  alteration,  and  just  as  had  been  foreseen,  the  disapprobation 
of  the  house  was  provoked  at  the  passage  before  objected  to;  and  the  performer, 
alarmed  and  uneasy  at  the  hisses  he  had  met  with,  retired  into  the  green-room,  where 
the  author  was  indulging  his  genius,  and  solacing  himself  with  a  bottle  of  champagne. 
He  had  by  this  time  drank  pretty  plentifully;  and  cocking  his  eye  at  the  actor,  with 
streams  of  tobacco  trickling  down  from  the  corner  of  his  mouth,  "What's  the  matter, 
Garrick?"  says  he;  "what  are  they  hissing  now?"  "Why,  the  scene  that  I  begged 
you  to  re-touch;  I  knew  it  would  not  do;  and  they  have  so  frightened  me  that  I  shall 
not  be  able  to  collect  myself  again  the  whole  night."  "Oh!  d-mn  'em,"  replies  the 
author,  "they  have  found  it  out,  have  they?" 

Of  the  main  truth  of  this  anecdote  there  can  be  no 
doubt,  as  Murphy's  Essay  was  pubHshed  during  the 
Hfetime  of  Garrick,  who  must  have  read  it,  but  it  is 
embellished  after  the  writer's  usual  manner.  How,  for 
instance,  could  tobacco  run  from  a  man's  mouth  ?  and 
if  he  meant  tobacco-juice,  that  could  only  be  in  conse- 
quence of  chewing,  and  how  a  man  could  chew  tobacco 
and  drink  wine  at  the  same  time  it  is  not  easy  to  see; 
further,  champagne  is  not  exactly  a  wine  that  a  man 
would  sit  over.  It  may  seem  unfeeling  in  Fielding  to 
have  been  thus  indulging,  with  a  wife  on  a  sick-bed  and 
a  favourite  child  either  dying  or  dead;  but  the  presence 
of  the  author  was  requisite  at  the  theatre,  and  the  wine 
and  the  pipe  were  probably  no  more  than  a  resource 
against  the  affliction  and  melancholy  that  were  pressing 
on  his  mind.  Necessity  is  stern.  How  often  has  the 
actor  or  actress,  under  her  rigid  command,  convulsed 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  55 

an  audience  with  laughter,  while  their  heart  was  burst- 
ing with  grief! 

During  the  spring  or  summer  of  this  year,  Fielding 
published  by  subscription  his  Miscellanies,  in  three 
volumes,  containing  his  Verses,  "Miss  Lucy  in  Town," 
"The  Wedding-Day,"  "The  Journey  from  this  World 
to  the  Next,"  "Jonathan  Wild,"  and  some  short  pieces 
in  prose.  His  legal  brethren  subscribed  numerously, 
and  the  work  seems  to  have  reached  a  second  edition 
the  same  year.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  volumes 
appear  to  have  gone  out  of  existence.  Even  in  the 
British  Museum  there  is  only  an  odd  first  volume  of 
the  second  edition  in  the  King's  Library.^ 

Some  time  in  the  course  of  this  year,  perhaps  in  the 
autumn,  Fielding  met  with  the  greatest  calamity  that 
ever  befell  him  —  the  loss  of  that  beautiful,  amiable, 
and  affectionate  woman,  the  companion  and  soother 
of  all  his  cares,  afflictions,  and  misfortunes,  the  model 
from  whom  he  formed  his  delightful  Sophia  and  Amelia. 
She  had  been  for  some  time  in  a  bad  state  of  health,  and 
now  was  attacked  by  a  fever  which  carried  her  off.  It 
tasked  all  the  mental  vigour  and  philosophy  of  the  be- 
reaved husband  to  bear  the  shock  of  this  overwhelming 
affliction,  which,  we  are  assured,  well  nigh  deprived 
him  of  reason. 

Murphy  gives  us  no  account  of  this  estimable  woman. 


56  HENRY  FIELDING 

and  all  that  was  known  of  her  till  of  late  years,  was  that, 
as  Fielding  himself  tells  us,  he  had  her  in  view  when 
drawing  his  Sophia  Western,  and  the  generally  known 
fact  that  she  was  the  original  of  his  Amelia.  "  Henry 
Fielding,"  says  Lady  Mary  W.  Montague,  in  one  of 
her  letters,  "has  given  a  true  picture  of  himself  and  his 
first  wife,  in  the  character  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Booth,  some 
compliments  to  his  own  figure  excepted;  and  I  am 
persuaded  several  of  the  incidents  he  mentions  are  real 
matters  of  fact."  Richardson  also,  in  one  of  his  letters, 
writes,  "Amelia,  even  to  her  noselessness,  is  again  his 
first  wife."  But  the  biographers  in  general  seem  to 
have  overlooked  the  following  passage  in  Fielding's 
own  essay  Of  the  Remedy  of  Afflictions  for  the  Loss  of 
our  Friends,  in  which  she  is  evidently  the  person  alluded 
to,  —  "I  remember  the  most  excellent  of  women  and 
tenderest  of  mothers,  when,  after  a  painful  and  danger- 
ous delivery,  she  was  told  she  had  a  daughter,  answering 
'Good  God!  have  I  produced  a  creature  who  is  to 
undergo  what  I  have  suffered?'  Some  years  after- 
wards I  heard  the  same  woman,  on  the  death  of  that 
very  child,  then  one  of  the  loveliest  creatures  ever  seen, 
comforting  herself  with  reflecting  that  'her  child 
would  never  know  what  it  was  to  feel  such  a  loss  as 
she  then  lamented.'  " 

At  length,   in  the  present  century,  the  late  Lord 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  57 

Wharncliffe  was  able,  from  the  account  of  his  grand- 
mother, Lady  Bute,  to  give  us  information  respecting 
Fielding  and  his  affairs  of  which  the  world  had  pre- 
viously been  in  ignorance.     Of  Mrs.  Fielding  he  says : — 

Only  those  persons  are  mentioned  here  of  whom  Lady  Bute  could  speak  from 
her  own  recollection  or  her  mother's  report.  Both  had  made  her  well  informed  of  every 
particular  that  concerned  her  relation,  Henry  Fielding,  nor  was  she  a  stranger  to  that 
beloved  first  wife  whose  picture  he  drew  in  his  Amelia,  where,  as  she  said,  even  the 
glowing  language  he  knew  how  to  employ  did  not  do  more  than  justice  to  the  amiable 
qualities  of  the  original,  or  to  her  beauty,  although  this  had  suffered  a  little  from  the 
accident  related  in  the  novel  —  a  frightful  overturn,  which  destroyed  the  gristle  of  her 
nose.  He  loved  her  passionately,  and  she  returned  his  affection;  yet  led  no  happy 
life,  for  they  were  almost  always  miserably  poor,  and  seldom  in  a  state  of  quiet  and 
safety.  Sometimes  they  were  living  in  decent  lodgings  with  tolerable  comfort,  some- 
times in  a  wretched  garret  without  necessaries,  not  to  speak  of  the  spunging-houses 
and  hiding-places  where  he  was  occasionally  to  be  found.  His  elastic  gaiety  of  mind 
carried  him  through  it  all,  but  meanwhile  care  and  anxiety  were  preying  upon  her 
more  delicate  mind  and  undermining  her  constitution.  She  gradually  declined,  caught 
a  fever,  and  died  in  his  arms. 

The  statement  here  made  requires  examination.  Lord 
Wharncliffe,  as  we  see,  derived  his  information  from 
his  grandmother.  Lady  Bute,  the  daughter  of  Lady  Mary 
Wortley  Montague,  and  to  whom,  in  imitation  perhaps 
of  Mme.  de  Sevigne,  most  of  her  letters  are  addressed. 
Lady  Bute  died  in  1794,  at  an  advanced  age,  when 
Lord  Wharncliffe  was  only  eighteen  years  old.  Being 
probably  a  youth  of  an  inquiring  disposition,  it  is  likely 
that  he  had  his  information  directly  from  his  grand- 
mother, and  there  seems  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he 


58  HENRY  FIELDING 

has  not  accurately  related  what  he  heard.  But  as  this 
could  hardly  have  been  till  the  last  two  or  three  years 
of  Lady  Bute's  life,  and  she  was  speaking  of  things  that 
occurred  more  than  half  a  century  before;  and  as,  from 
the  difference  of  their  social  stations,  her  intimacy  could 
scarcely  have  been  very  great  with  her  less  fortunate 
cousins,  we  may  not  unreasonably  suspect  some  error 
and  exaggeration  in  the  foregoing  account.  In  a  word, 
I  doubt  if  Fielding  was  ever  in  the  abject  poverty  he  is 
here  represented  in.  I  have  shown  that  he  could  not 
have  been  very  poor  for  the  first  two  years  after  his 
return  to  London;  for  more  than  two  more  he  was 
engaged  in  the  study  of  the  law,  which  hardly  was  com- 
patible with  living  in  a  garret  and  skulking  in  out-o'-the- 
way  retreats;  for  the  remainder  of  his  wife's  lifetime  he 
was  a  practising  barrister  and  going  circuit,  which, 
again,  is  incompatible  with  abject  poverty.  Add  to  this 
that  the  account  presently  to  be  noticed,  which  Lord 
Wharncliffe  gives  of  the  strong  attachment  of  their  maid- 
servant to  her  mistress,  tends  to  prove  that  she  had  been 
living  with  them  for  some  time,  perhaps  for  some  years. 
In  fact,  I  doubt  if  the  whole  account  of  Fielding's  pov- 
erty and  distresses  does  not  rest  on  the  following  passage 
in  one  of  Lady  Mary's  letters  to  Lady  Bute,  and 
which  possibly  was  Lord  Wharncliffe's  sole  authority. 
"His  natural  spirits  gave  him  rapture  with  his   cook- 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  59 

maid  and  cheerfulness  when  he  was  starving  in  a  garret;" 
of  which  the  former  circumstance  will  be  explained  in 
the  sequel,  and  the  latter,  as  we  shall  see,  can  only  refer 
to  the  lifetime  of  his  first  wife.  In  reading  it,  we  should 
recollect  Lady  Mary's  love  of  point,  and  the  tendency  of 
women  in  general  to  exaggeration.  On  the  whole,  I 
think  that  Mrs.  Fielding's  distress  may  not  at  any  time 
have  been  much  greater  than  that  of  Amelia,  who  had 
to  cook  her  own  dinner,  having  only  a  little  girl  for  a  ser- 
vant; and  who  was  under  the  necessity  of  taking  her 
ornaments  and  even  her  clothes  to  the  pawnbroker's, 
and  of  seeking  her  imprudent  husband  in  a  spunging- 
house.  I  cannot  believe  she  ever  was  reduced  to  live 
in  a  garret. 

We  have  no  means  of  ascertaining  what  children 
Fielding  had  by  this  admirable  woman.  One  daughter, 
as  we  have  seen,  died  just  before  herself;  another  we 
know  survived  her,  and  we  hear  of  no  other  children. 
Booth  and  Amelia  are,  however,  represented  as  having 
a  son  and  a  daughter;  and  in  his  dream  in  the  True 
Patriot  (1745),  Fielding  describes  himself  as  having  a 
son  and  a  daughter.  He  may  therefore  have  had  a  son 
whom  he  outlived. 

For  a  period  of  two  years  after  the  death  of  his  wife, 
we  have  hardly  any  account  of  the  occupations  of  Field- 
ing.    From  a  preface  which  he  prefixed  in  1744  to  the 


6o  HENRY  FIELDING 

second  edition  of  his  sister  Sarah's  novel  of  David  Sim- 
ple, it  would  appear  that  he  was  then  applying  himself 
vigorously  to  his  profession,  while  we  have  indubitable 
evidence  that  at  some  period  or  other  he  was  residing  near 
Bath;  and  this,  as  we  shall  see,  could  only  have  been  in 
some  part  of  these  two  years.  It  is  not,  then,  at  all 
improbable,  that  as  his  infirmities  increased  on  him  he 
was  ordered  to  Bath  for  the  benefit  of  the  waters.  I 
found  this  opinion  on  the  following  circumstance: — 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Graves,  author  of  The  Spiritual 
Quixote,  and  other  works,  who  was  appointed  in  1750 
to  the  rectory  of  Claverton,  near  Prior-park,  the  seat  of 
Ralph  Allen,  gave  the  world  anecdotes  of  that  excellent 
man,  who  (let  me  add  here,  by  way  of  parenthesis,  what 
is  not  generally  known)  commenced  his  career,  as  Mr. 
Greenley  informed  me,  as  a  mere  letter-carrier  between 
Bath  and  Marlborough,  from  which  humble  occupation 
he  gradually  rose  through  his  own  industry,  honesty, 
and  talent  to  be  the  noble-minded  and  generous  master 
of  Prior-park.  In  that  work  Mr.  Graves  informs  us 
that  Fielding,  who  was  residing  at  Tiverton,  near  Bath, 
used  to  dine  almost  every  day  at  Prior-park.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  this  was  the  period  when  Fielding's 
fortune  was  at  the  lowest  ebb.  He  was  certainly  now 
engaged  on  his  Tom  Jones;  and  in  the  dedication  of 
that  work  to  his  friend  Lyttleton  he  says,  "  I  partly  owe 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  6i 

to  you  my  Existence  during  great  Part  of  the  Time  which 
I  have  employed  in  composing  it."  It  is  quite  plain, 
then,  that  Lyttleton  gave  him  pecuniary  aid;  and  he  did 
more,  for  he  induced  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  whose  liber- 
ality was  not  in  general  very  conspicuous,  to  give  him 
what  in  the  same  place  Fielding  terms  "princely  bene- 
factions;" and  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  but  that  the 
good  Allen  did  not  confine  his  generosity  to  the  mere 
giving  him  his  dinner.  Indeed,  from  the  manner  in 
which  Fielding  speaks  of  him  in  Joseph  Andrews,  in 
1742,  it  is  plain  that  even  then  he  was  intimate  with  him, 
and  possibly  had  tasted  of  his  hospitality,  if  not  of  his 
bounty.  The  handsome  compliment,  also,  which  he 
pays  Warburton,  in  the  Journey  to  the  Next  World,  on 
his  fanciful  exposition  of  the  Sixth  Book  of  the  Mneid, 
might  seem  to  intimate  a  personal  acquaintance,  formed 
most  probably  at  Prior-park,  to  which  place  there  is 
also  an  allusion  in  that  piece.  We  have  not  the  means 
of  ascertaining  whether  Fielding  had  his  family  with 
him  at  Tiverton  or  not,  though  it  would  seem  most 
probable  that  he  had,  neither  do  we  know  how  long  he 
remained  there.  As,  however,  there  does  not  seem  to  be 
any  reason  for  his  return  to  London,  his  abode  at  Tiver- 
ton may  have  continued  till  the  autumn  of  1745. 

[Twiverton,  not  Tiverton  (in  which  I  incautiously 
followed  Mr.  Lawrence),  is  the  proper  orthography  of 


62  HENRY  FIELDING 

the  name  of  the  village  popularly  called  Tiverton.  For 
this  correction  I  am  indebted  to  the  mayor  of  Bath  (Dr. 
Wilbraham  Falconer),  who  has  also  informed  me  that 
the  house  in  which  Fielding  lived  is  still  in  existence]. 
We  may  probably  also  infer  that  his  gout  could  not 
have  been  very  severe  at  that  time;  for  beside  walking, 
as  we  must  suppose,  every  day  to  the  pump-room  in 
Bath,  and  perhaps  back  again,  his  daily  visit  to  Prior- 
park  must  have  obliged  him  to  go  over  a  good  deal  of 
ground,  as  the  distance  between  that  and  Tiverton  is 
not  inconsiderable.  There  is  also,  as  I  shall  show  when 
I  come  to  the  examination  of  Tom  Jones,  some  reason 
to  suppose  that  at  this  time,  as  well  as  at  some  earlier 
periods.  Fielding  may  have  gone  from  Bath  to  Hagley 
Park,  on  a  visit  to  his  friend  Lyttleton. 

I  fix  upon  the  above  date  because  Fielding  was 
certainly  in  London  previous  to  the  month  of  November 
in  that  year.  The  Pretender  had  gained  the  victory  at 
Preston  Pans,  and  was  now  in  England;  and  it  probably 
occurred  to  Lyttleton,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Govern- 
ment, what  good  service  Addison  had,  on  a  somewhat 
similar  occasion,  done  to  his  country  by  the  publication 
of  his  Freeholder,  and  he  may  have  thought  that  a  series 
of  essays  of  the  same  kind  might  be  of  essential  service 
at  the  present  conjuncture,  and  he  may  have  proposed 
it  to  Fielding,  who  had  already  distinguished  himself 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  63 

as  an  essayist  in  the  Champion;  or  the  idea  may  have 
originated  with  Fielding  himself,  and  have  been  ap- 
proved of  by  Lyttleton  and  some  of  the  other  members 
of  the  Government.  The  paper  w^as  v^ritten  v^ith  great 
spirit,  and  a  true  love  of  rational  liberty;  for  the  writer, 
who  was  no  mere  mercenary  hireling,  threw  his  whole 
soul  into  it;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  was  of 
use  to  the  cause  of  the  House  of  Brunswick.  It  is  there- 
fore not  unlikely  that  he  received  a  promise  from  the 
Government  that  something  would  be  done  for  him. 
In  fact,  as  he  tells  us,  in  his  Voyage  to  Lisbon,  that  he 
had  a  pension  —  of  which  he  gives  neither  the  date  nor 
the  amount,  and  for  an  account  of  which  I  have  sought 
in  vain  in  the  Record  Office  —  it  may  have  been  granted 
on  the  suppression  of  the  Rebellion  in  1746.  Under 
these  circumstances,  and  feeling  the  increase  of  his  in- 
firmities, he  seems  to  have  thought  that  he  might  not 
imprudently  unite  himself  (for  the  second  time)  in  mar- 
riage, with  one  who  he  knew  would  prove  a  tender  nurse 
and  an  affectionate  friend.  Lord  Wharncliffe  thus 
expresses  himself  on  the  subject: — 

His  biographers  seem  to  have  been  shy  of  disclosing  that  after  the  death  of  this 
charming  woman  he  married  her  maid.  And  yet  the  act  was  not  so  discreditable  to 
his  character  as  it  may  sound.  The  maid  had  few  personal  charms,  but  was  an  excel- 
lent creature,  devotedly  attached  to  her  mistress,  and  almost  broken-hearted  for  her 
loss.  In  the  first  agonies  of  his  own  grief,  which  approached  to  frenzy,  he  found  no 
relief  but  from  weeping  along  with  her  —  no  solace,  when  a  degree  calmer,  but  in  talk- 


64  HENRY  FIELDING 

i  ng  to  her  of  the  angel  they  mutually  regretted.  This  made  her  his  habitual  confidential 
associate,  and  in  process  of  time  he  began  to  think  he  could  not  give  his  children  a 
tenderer  mother,  or  secure  for  himself  a  more  faithful  housekeeper  and  nurse.  At 
least,  this  was  what  he  told  his  friends;  and  it  is  certain  that  her  conduct  as  his  wife 
confirmed  it,  and  fully  justified  his  good  opinion. 

In  what  is  here  said  of  Fielding's  biographers  there 
is  an  error,  for  none  of  them,  except  it  may  be  Murphy, 
seems  to  have  known  anything  about  his  second  wife. 
Murphy  was  probably  acquainted  with  her,  for  he  says 
that  he  printed  Amelia  "from  a  copy  corrected  by  the 
author's  own  hand;"  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  it  was 
from  his  widow  that  he  obtained  it,  as  well  as  some  of  the 
materials  of  his  scanty  biography,  and  respect  and  grati- 
tude would  then  restrain  him  from  mentioning  a  circum- 
stance of  which  he  could  hardly  be  ignorant,  but  which 
might  tend  to  lower  her  in  the  estimation  of  the  world. 
Still,  I  will  not  assert  positively  that  Murphy  was  thus 
indebted  to  Mrs.  Fielding,  for  his  authority  may  have 
been  John  Fielding.  The  later  biographers  then,  had 
nothing  to  guide  them  but  Lady  Mary  W.  Montague's 
saying,  that  "his  natural  spirits  gave  him  rapture 
with  his  cook-maid,"  which  one  of  them  professes  he 
could  not  understand.  There  is  also  in  the  following 
passages  of  the  first  edition  of  Peregrine  Pickle  —  to 
which  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  directed  attention,  and 
which  Mr.  Lawrence  has,  a  Vordinaire,  quoted  silently 
—  an  evident  allusion  to  Fielding's  marriage;    but  as 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  65 

the  author  very  properly  cancelled  it  in  the  subsequent 
editions,  it  is  probable  that  few  of  them  ever  S2iW  it.  In 
his  coarse  attack  on  Lord  Lyttleton,  under  the  name  of 
Gosling  Scrag,  he  says,  "I  advise  Mr.  Spondy  to  give 
him  the  refusal  of  this  same  pastoral.  Who  knov^s 
but  he  may  have  the  good  fortune  of  being  listed  in  the 
number  of  his  beef-eaters  ?  in  which  case  he  may,  in 
process  of  time,  be  provided  for  in  the  Customs  or  the 
Church.  When  he  is  inclined  to  marry  his  own  cook- 
wench,  his  gracious  patron  may  condescend  to  give  the 
bride  away;  and  may  finally  settle  him,  in  his  old  age, 
as  a  trading  Westminster  justice."  The  allusion  here 
to  Fielding  is  not  to  be  mistaken,  and  what  is  a  matter 
of  some  importance,  we  learn  from  it  that  his  marriage 
must  have  met  with  the  entire  approbation  of  his  vir- 
tuous friend  and  patron. 

The  name  of  this  excellent  woman  was  Mary  Mac- 
donnell,  Macdonald,  or  Macdaniel,  as  it  is  variously 
spelt,  and  she  was  probably  of  Scotch  extraction.  She 
bore  him  four  children,  and  survived  him  nearly  half 
a  century,  as  she  died  at  Canterbury  on  the  i  ith  March, 
1802.  The  marriage  seems  to  have  taken  place  in  the 
spring  of  1746,  for  their  first  child  was  baptized  at 
Twickenham,  February  25th,  1747. 

[It  does  not  seem  to  be  quite  certain  that  Fielding 
was  married  in  1746.      I  inferred  it  from  the  baptism 


66  HENRY  FIELDING 

of  his  first  son  in  February,  1747;  but  the  style  was 
not  changed  till  1752,  so  that  February,  1747,  would 
really  belong  to  1748.  Nichols,  however,  I  think,  made, 
as  is  usual,  the  requisite  reduction,  and  1746  is  prob- 
ably the  right  year  of  Fielding's  marriage.  If  so,  the 
lodgings  in  which  Warton  spent  the  evening  may  have 
been  Miss  Fielding's  (who  had  evidently  an  independ- 
ent income),  and  Henry  may  have  only  had  a  bed- 
room in  the  same  house;  if  he  was  not  married  till 
the  next  year,  the  brother  and  sister  may  have  been 
living  together]. 

Mr.  Lawrence  also  quotes  the  following  lines  from 
a  poem,  "On  Felix  married  to  a  Cook-maid,"  in  the 
Gentleman's  Magazine  for  July,  1746,  which  may  refer 
to  Fielding: 

Felix,  who  once  an  ode  could  write 

To  a  victorious  duke, 
Must  needs  in  humble  strains  endite 

Love-sonnets  to  a  cook. 
*         *         * 
Marriage  his  wit  may  check  —  to  show  it 

Before  he  was  too  eager, 
Now  better  qualified  for  poet 

Since  he  became  a  beggar. 

This,  as  I  have  said,  may  refer  to  Fielding,  with 
whose  name  the  initial  letter  and  the  number  of  the  sylla- 
bles in  Felix  correspond;  but  we  have  no  account  of  his 
ever  having  written  an  ode  to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland, 


LIFE   BY  KEIGHTLEY  67 

though  one  may  have  been  ascribed  to  him.  The  term 
beggar  might  refer  to  his  receiving  benefactions  from 
his  friends.  The  v^hole  theory,  however,  seems  to  be 
upset  by  the  second  stanza,  which  Mr.  Lawrence  has 
omitted,  for  FeHx  is  there  called  "a  rebel,"  and  it  is 
added  that  "the  heroine  was  Bess;"  while,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  name  of  Fielding's  wife  was  Mary.  Felix 
may,  then,  have  been  a  Jacobite  who  addressed  an  ode 
to  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  upbraiding  him  with  his 
atrocities  in  Scotland.  Mr.  Lawrence,  when  showing 
from  a  poem  by  Walpole  that  Fielding  had  resided  at 
Twickenham,  says,  "with  respect  to  the  period,  ...  it 
is  not  in  our  power  to  afford  any  accurate  information," 
and  he  supposes  it  must  have  been  while  he  was  a  mag- 
istrate. But  we  may  now  see  that  as  his  eldest  son  was 
born  there,  it  is  probable  that  he  took  up  his  residence 
at  Twickenham  before  or  soon  after  his  marriage.  At 
the  same  time  he  probably  had  a  residence  of  some  kind 
in  London,  for  J.  Warton,  writing  to  his  brother  on  the 
29th  October,  1746,  says:— 

I  wish  you  had  been  with  tne  last  week  when  I  spent  two  evenings  with  Fielding 
and  his  sister,  who  wrote  David  Simple:  and  you  may  guess  I  was  very  well  enter- 
tained. The  lady,  indeed,  retired  pretty  soon,  but  Russell  and  I  sat  up  with  the  poet 
till  one  or  two  in  the  morning,  and  were  inexpressi'^y  diverted.  I  find  he  values,  as 
he  justly  may,  his  Joseph  Andrews  above  all  his  writings.  He  was  extremely  civil  to 
me,  I  fancy  on  my  father's  account. 

We  thus  see  that  while  Fielding  had  a  residence  for 


68  HENRY  FIELDING 

his  wife  at  Twickenham  (for  it  is  quite  plain  she  could 
not  have  been  with  him  on  this  occasion),  he  must  have 
had  at  least  lodgings  in  London,  where  his  sister  appar- 
ently kept  house  for  him.  We  also  seem  here  to  find 
a  confirmation  of  his  intimacy  with  Hampshire,  for  the 
Wartons'  father  lived  near  Basingstoke,  in  that  county. 
It  is  rather  strange  to  find  him  called  the  poet;  but  this 
may  be  on  account  of  the  poems  in  his  Miscellanies,  or 
rather  Warton  uses  the  word  as  synonymous  with  a 
writer  of  works  of  imagination,  and  may  have  had 
Joseph  Andrews  chiefly  in  view,  which  work  Fielding 
himself,  in  the  preface,  styles  a  poem;  and  Sir  Walter 
Scott  observes,  that  "every  successful  novelist  must  be 
more  or  less  of  a  poet,  even  although  he  may  never  have 
written  a  line  of  verse." 

The  True  Patriot  ceased  when  the  rebellion  had  been 
completely  put  down;  and  we  are  not  informed  how 
Fielding  occupied  himself  till  toward  the  end  of  1747, 
when,  in  the  month  of  December,  he  commenced  an- 
other paper,  called  the  Jacobite  Journal,  of  which  the 
object  was  to  cover  with  ridicule  and  hold  up  to  general 
contempt  the  principles  and  members  of  the  beaten 
party,  and  thus,  as  it  were,  tread  out  the  embers  of  the 
late  conflagration.  It  was  published  once  a  week,  and 
was  continued  till  November,  1748,  when  it  ceased, 
probably  in  consequence  of  its  writer  being  appointed 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  69 

a  magistrate  for  Westminster,  which  was  the  only 
reward  for  his  pubHc  services  that  his  friend  Lyttleton 
was  able  to  obtain  for  him  from  a  Government  that  was 
lavishing  its  favours  on  persons  of  infinitely  inferior 
powers  and  pretentions. 

Murphy,  with  his  usual  inaccuracy,  says  he  was 
made  "  an  acting  magistrate  in  the  commission  of  the 
peace  for  Middlesex,"  and  he  has  been  followed  by  all 
the  other  biographers.  The  publication,  however,  of 
the  Correspondence  of  "John  Duke  of  Bedford,  enables 
us  to  correct  this  error.  We  there  meet  with  a  letter 
from  Fielding  to  the  Duke,  dated  Bow-street,  December 
13th,  1748,  in  which  he  speaks  of  himself  as  in  the  com- 
mission for  Westminster,  but  adds  that  the  profits  of 
that  office  would  be  quite  trifling  unless  he  were  in  the 
commission  for  Middlesex  also.  But  as  for  this  a  prop- 
erty qualification  was  requisite,  he  asks  the  Duke  to  let 
him  have  a  twenty-one  year  lease  of  a  house  in  Bedford- 
street,  worth  £jo  a  year,  but  which  it  would  take  ;{^300 
to  put  in  repair,  and  of  some  other  house  worth  £i^o  a 
year,  and  to  let  him  pay  the  money  in  two  years  in  half- 
yearly  payments.  It  would  appear  that  the  Duke 
assented,  for  Fielding  became  a  magistrate  for  Middle- 
sex. 

Fielding  had  been  only  three  months  in  office  when 
he  gave  the  world  to  know  how  his  leisure  hours  for  the 


70  HENRY  FIELDING 

last  few  years  had  been  employed,  by  publishing  his 
immortal  novel  of  Tom  Jones,  of  which  the  reception 
was  most  enthusiastic. 

In  a  letter  to  George  Montague,  dated  May  i8th, 
1749,  the  flippant,  cold-hearted,  malignant  Horace 
Walpole  writes  as  follows: — 

Rigby  gave  me  as  strong  a  picture  of  nature  [as  a  scene  of  low-life  in  Holborn]. 
He  and  Peter  Bathurst,  t'other  night  carried  a  servant  of  the  latter's,  who  had  attempted 
to  shoot  him,  before  Fielding;  who,  to  all  his  other  vocations,  has,  by  the  grace  of  Mr, 
Lyttleton,  added  that  of  Middlesex  justice.  He  sent  them  word  he  was  at  supper, 
they  must  come  next  morning.  They  did  not  understand  that  freedom,  and  ran  up, 
when  they  found  him  banqueting  with  a  blind  man,  a  whore,  and  three  Irishmen,  on 
some  cold  mutton  and  a  bone  of  ham,  both  in  one  dish,  and  the  dirtiest  cloth.  He  never 
stirred  nor  asked  them  to  sit.  Rigby,  who  had  seen  him  so  often  come  to  beg  a  guinea 
of  Sir  C.  Williams,  and  Bathurst,  at  whose  father's  he  had  lived  for  victuals,  understood 
that  dignity  as  little,  and  pulled  themselves  chairs;   on  which  he  civilized. 

A  piece  of  more  concentrated  venom  than  this  it 
would  be  difficult  to  discover.  The  idea  meant  to  be 
conveyed  was,  that  Fielding  the  magistrate  entertained 
in  his  official  residence  some  of  the  lowest  and  most 
debased  characters  that  Covent-garden  and  Drury-lane 
could  supply;  for  one  is  led  to  suppose  that  the  blind 
man  was  a  beggar,  and  the  Irishmen,  chairmen,  coster- 
mongers,  or  something  worse.  Now  the  truth  is,  the 
blind  man  was  Fielding's  younger  brother,  John,  who 
succeeded  him  in  his  office;  the  whore  was  his  wife, 
whose  appearance  was  probably  not  very  ladylike;   and 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  71 

the  Irishmen,  of  whom  Murphy  was  possibly  one,  were 
law-students,  or  men  who  lived  by  their  pen,  to  whom 
he  was  always  kind  and  generous;  the  table-cloth  was 
probably  merely  a  soiled  one,  and  surely  there  was 
nothing  so  very  extraordinary  in  two  kinds  of  cold  meat 
being  placed  in  the  one  dish.  Fielding  no  doubt  did 
receive  loans  or  gifts  of  money  from  his  friend  and 
schoolfellow.  Sir  Charles  Williams,  as  he  did  from 
Lyttleton  and  Allen,  and  Rigby  may  have  been  present 
on  one  or  more  of  these  occasions;  but  his  ever  having 
"lived  for  his  victuals"  at  Bathurst's  father's,  seems 
utterly  inconsistent  with  what  we  have  seen  of  his  life, 
and  perhaps  resolves  itself  into  his  having  been  frequent- 
ly invited  to  dine  there,  a  thing  easily  accounted  for  if 
his  father  was  Lord  Bathurst,  the  friend  of  Pope  and 
Swift.  Mr,  Rigby's  character  is  pretty  well  known 
from  Junius  and  other  sources,  and  he,  at  least,  was 
not  the  equal  of  Fielding  in  birth.  At  all  events  they 
acted  like  a  pair  of  scoundrels,  and  the  malignant  frib- 
ble who  retails  their  fictions,  and  probably  exaggerates 
them,  was  not  sorry  to  meet  with  an  opportunity  for 
venting  his  spleen  on  a  man  whom  his  Tom  Jones  had 
recently  covered  with  a  literary  glory  to  which  he  could 
never  hope  to  attain.  Perhaps,  too,  he  knew  who  was 
meant  by  Jonathan  Wild.' 

[I  think  the  conjecture  of  Murphy's  forming  one  of 


72  HENRY  FIELDING 

the  supper-party  is  confirmed  by  the  circumstance  of 
such  being  the  name  of  the  Salisbury  attorney  in  Amelia^ 
which  was  commenced  in  that  or  the  following  year. 
This  name  was  probably  adopted  by  way  of  a  joke  on  the 
young  Irish  law-student,  for  no  name  is  more  thoroughly 
Irish  than  Murphy;  and  I  doubt  if  even  in  the  present 
day  any  respectable  person  bearing  it  could  be  found 
in  any  town  in  the  south  of  England]. 

As  a  magistrate,  Fielding  was  most  active  and  ex- 
emplary in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  On  the  I2th  of 
May  —  just  a  week,  by  the  way,  previous  to  the  date  of 
Walpole's  letter  —  he  was  unanimously  elected  by  the 
Middlesex  magistrates  as  chairman  of  the  sessions  at 
Hicks'  Hall,  "in  the  room,"  the  newspaper  states,  "of 
Thomas  Lane,  Esq.,  now  one  of  the  Masters  in  Chan- 
cery;" so  that  it  was  no  small  compliment  to  his  legal 
knowledge.  On  the  29th  of  June  he  delivered  there  the 
excellent  charge  which  is  printed  in  his  works.  Toward 
the  close  of  this  year  he  had  so  severe  an  attack  of  fever 
and  gout  that  his  life  was  thought  to  be  in  danger.  The 
year  1750  was  a  busy  year  with  him  in  his  office,  rob- 
beries having  increased  in  a  most  awful  manner.  In 
January,  1751,  he  gave  the  world  the  results  of  his  ex- 
perience in  a  pamphlet,  named  An  Inquiry  into  the 
Causes  of  the  late  Increase  of  Robbers^  &c.,  dedicated 
to  the  Chancellor,  Lord  Hardwicke,  by  whom,  and  by 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  -jz 

several  other  eminent  lawyers,  it  was  highly  estimated. 
The  late  Sir  James  Macintosh,  it  may  be  recollected, 
quoted  it  with  approbation  in  Parliament. 

All  this  time  Fielding  was  devoting  his  few  leisure 
hours  to  the  composition  of  another  novel,  the  apotheosis, 
as  it  may  be  termed,  of  his  adored  first  wife.  Amelia 
was  published  at  the  end  of  this  year.  An  able  review- 
er of  Mr.  Lawrence's  work  wonders  that  the  composi- 
tion of  it  did  not  break  Fielding's  heart.  But  had  he 
any  pangs  of  remorse  to  endure  t  I  doubt  it  much. 
We  have  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  he  had 
ever  been  unfaithful  to  her;  unkind  he  certainly  never 
was.  He  no  doubt  had  to  think  on  many  an  act  of 
imprudence  which  must  have  caused  her  pain,  and 
have  gone  over  many  a  scene  of  distress  endured  in 
common,  her  conduct  in  which  made  her  memory  rise 
more  lovely  to  his  eyes.  But  I  would  almost  venture 
to  affirm  that  his  predominant  feeling  during  the  com- 
position of  this  work  was  what  the  Portuguese  express 
by  their  untranslatable  word  saudade^  or  what  the 
French  term  douce  melancolie^  in  which  pleasure  and 
pain  are  mingled  in  nearly  equal  quantities. 

Hardly  had  Amelia  been  out  of  his  hands  when  the 
active  mind  of  its  author,  in  spite  of  gout  and  profession- 
al occupation,  was  again  engaged  in  literature.  On 
the  4th  January,   1752,  appeared  the  first  number  of 


74  HENRY  FIELDING 

The  Covent  Garden  Journal^  of  which  Fielding  was  the 
editor,  and  in  a  great  measure  the  writer.  It  came  out 
twice  or  thrice  a  week,  and  was  continued  to  the  end 
of  the  year,  when  the  state  of  his  health  and  the  press  of 
business  obliged  him  to  give  it  up.  Arthur  Murphy  then 
started  the  Grays  Inn  Journal,  of  a  similar  character, 
which  tends  to  confirm  the  fact  of  his  intimacy  with 
Fielding,  already  alluded  to.  Chalmers,  in  fact,  in  a 
note  on  Murphy's  Essay  on  Fielding,  says  "Mr.  Mur- 
phy's copy  of  this  work  {The  Covent  Garden  Journal) 
is  now  in  my  possession.  I  strongly  suspect  he  com- 
municated some  article  to  it." 

In  January,  1753,  Fielding  published  a  Proposal 
for  making  an  effectual  Provision  for  the  Poor,  &c. 
The  case  of  that  celebrated  impostor  Elizabeth  Canning, 
by  whom  he  was  completely  deceived,  occupied  much  of 
his  time  and  thoughts  during  this  year,  and  he  published 
what  he  termed  "a  clear  state"  of  her  case.  In  conse- 
quence of  the  state  of  his  health  he  was  preparing  to  go 
to  Bath,  when  he  was  called  on  by  the  Duke  of  New- 
castle to  devise  some  plan  for  the  suppression  of  street- 
robberies.  His  plan  was  approved  of,  the  money  he 
required  was  issued  from  the  Treasury,  and  he  com- 
pletely broke  up  a  desperate  gang  of  ruffians  who  had 
filled  the  town  with  terror.  From  the  careless  manner 
in  which   Mr.   Lawrence  writes,  we  cannot  ascertain 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  75 

whether  he  went  to  Bath  or  not,  and  the  other  biog- 
raphers are  silent.  However,  his  case  was  now  hopeless; 
he  was  attacked  at  once  by  jaundice,  dropsy,  and  asth- 
ma. After  struggling  through  the  severe  winter  and 
uncongenial  spring  of  1754,  he  removed  to  a  cottage 
near  Ealing,  whence  he  set  out,  on  the  26th  of  June, 
with  his  wife  and  eldest  daughter,  to  embark  for  Lisbon. 
Ever  active  in  mind,  he  has  left  a  narrative  of  that  voy- 
age nearly  as  interesting  as  any  of  his  fictions.  He  did 
not  reach  Lisbon  till  the  middle  of  August,  and  on  the 
8th  of  October  he  there  breathed  his  last,  in  the  forty- 
eighth  year  of  his  age. 

In  person  Fielding  was  tall  and  large,  being  upwards 
of  six  feet  high,  and  he  seems  to  have  attached  much 
value  to  physical  power,  for  he  forms  all  his  heroes  after 
his  own  likeness.  In  consequence  probably  of  his 
formation,  he  appears  to  have  had  a  high  relish  for  ani- 
mal enjoyments.  His  cousin.  Lady  Mary,  gives  it  as 
her  opinion  that  no  man  ever  enjoyed  life  more  than  he 
did.  "His  happy  constitution,"  she  adds  "even  when 
he  had  with  great  pains  half-demolished  it,  made  him 
forget  every  evil  when  he  was  before  a  venison  pasty  or 
over  a  flask  of  champagne,  and  I  am  persuaded  he  has 
known  more  happy  moments  than  any  prince  on  earth." 
That  previous  to  his  marriage  he  ran  headlong  into  every 
species  of  dissipation,  is,  I  fear,  not  to  be  doubted;   but. 


76  HENRY  FIELDING 

as  I  have  endeavoured  to  show,  we  have  no  proof  that 
his  Hfe  was  otherwise  than  regular  after  his  marriage. 
Had  he,  for  example,  been  unfaithful  to  his  adored  wife, 
such  was  his  innate  candour  that  we  can  hardly  doubt 
but  he  would  have  seized  some  occasion  of  confessing 
and  deploring  it.  Even  in  his  most  licentious  days, 
he  never  lost  his  respect  for  religion  and  virtue. 

It  is  a  beautiful  trait  in  the  character  of  Fielding,  that 
unlike  Richardson,  Smollet,  and  others  of  the  genus 
irritabile,  he  seems  to  have  been  totally  free  from  malig- 
nity. It  is  mere  banter  and  ridicule  which  he  uses 
against  Gibber  and  others,  unless  a  suspicion  respecting 
Sir  Robert  Walpole,  hereafter  to  be  mentioned,  should 
be  well  founded.  Even  if  it  is,  he  seems  to  have  re- 
canted, for  in  the  Voyage  to  Lisbon  he  terms  him  the 
best  of  men  and  of  Ministers. 

Of  his  second  wife  he  speaks  in  the  following  terms 
in  various  parts  of  the  journal  of  his  voyage,  all  proving 
the  sterling  worth  of  her  character.  "My  wife,  who 
behaved  more  like  a  heroine  and  a  philosopher,  though 
at  the  same  time  the  tenderest  mother  in  the  world" — 
"who,  besides  discharging  excellently  well  her  own  and 
all  the  tender  offices  becoming  the  female  character; 
besides  being  a  faithful  friend,  an  amiable  companion, 
and  a  tender  nurse,  could  likewise  supply  the  wants  of 
a  decrepit  husband"  —  "his  dear  wife  and  child  were 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  -j-j 

both  too  good  and  too  gentle  to  be  trusted  to  the  power 
of  any  man  he  knew."  Surely  a  woman  of  whom  one 
of  his  deep  insight  into  human  nature  could  thus  so  un- 
affectedly express  himself,  must  have  been  one  of  the 
best  of  her  sex. 

The  daughter  here  spoken  of,  and  named  Eleanor 
Harriet,  was  by  his  first  wife,  but  whether  she  was  her 
first  child  or  not  we  are  not  informed.  She  did  not  long 
survive  her  father.  Nichols,  in  his  History  of  Leicester- 
shire (iv,  394),  gives,  I  presume  on  good  authority,  the 
following  account  of  his  family  by  his  second  wife: — 
"William,  baptized  at  Twickenham,  February  25th, 
1747,  a  barrister,  eminent  as  a  special  pleader,  living 
in  1807;  Rev.  Allen,  M.  A.,  vicar  of  Shepherd's  Well, 
Kent,  1783;  Hadington,  1787,  rector  of  St.  Cosmas 
and  Damian,  in  the  Blean,  1803,  hving  in  1807;  Amelia 
and  Louise,  baptized  1753."  Murphy,  writing  in  1762, 
says  he  left  four  children,  "three  of  which  are  still  living, 
and  are  now  training  up  in  a  handsome  course  of  educa- 
tion under  the  care  of  their  uncle,  with  the  aid  of  a  very 
generous  donation  given  annually  by  Ralph  Allen,  Esq., 
for  that  purpose."  Chalmers  adds  in  a  note,  "Mr. 
Allen  died  in  1764,  and  bequeathed  to  Mrs.  Fielding 
and  her  children  ;^ioo  each."  Mr.  Lawrence,  as  usual 
without  giving  any  authority,  says  he  "bequeathed  to 
the  family  an  annuity  of  ;^ioo  a  year." 


78  HENRY  FIELDING 

The  uncle  here  mentioned  was  Walpole's  bHnd  man, 
Fielding's  brother  John,  who  succeeded  him  in  his  office, 
and  notwithstanding  his  want  of  sight,  proved  a  most 
active  and  able  magistrate.  A  blind  lawyer  is  a  most 
unusual  phenomenon,  for  of  all  professions  the  law, 
where  so  much  must  be  read,  seems  to  stand  most  in 
need  of  vision.  It  would  seem  that  Fielding,  conscious 
of  his  own  frail  tenure  of  life,  and  aware  of  his  brother's 
talent,  and  of  his  attachment  to  himself  and  family,  be- 
came his  instructor  in  the  law  so  far  as  to  render  him 
capable  of  taking  his  place,  which  he  counted  on  being 
able  to  obtain  for  him.  And  he  was  not  disappointed 
"in  either  respect.  We  have  just  quoted  Murphy's 
testimony  for  the  one,  and  as  to  the  other.  Fielding  him- 
self says  in  his  journal,  "  I  therefore  resigned  the  office 
...  to  my  brother,  who  had  long  been  my  assistant." 
He  could  not  have  told  us  in  plainer  language  that  his 
brother  was  his  immediate  successor;  yet  Mr.  Law- 
rence says,  "  Mr.  Saunders  Welch  succeeded  Fielding 
as  a  justice  of  the  peace." 

The  pecuniary  circumstances  of  Fielding  for  the 
last  few  years  of  his  life  seem  worth  inquiring  into. 
Murphy  says  he  had  an  income  of  ^^400  or  ;^500  a  year; 
his  own  account  was  that  he  had,  as  already  mentioned, 
"a  small  pension,"  perhaps  of  ;^ioo  a  year,  "which," 
he  adds,  "would,  I  believe,  have  been  larger  had  my 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  79 

great  patron  been  convinced  of  an  error  which  I  have 
heard  him  utter  more  than  once  —  "That  he  could  not 
indeed  say  that  the  acting  as  a  principal  justice  of 
peace  in  Westminster  was  on  all  occasions  very  desira- 
ble, but  that  all  the  world  knew  it  was  a  very  lucrative 
office."  In  opposition  to  this  he  says  that,  by  compos- 
ing instead  of  inflaming  the  quarrels  of  porters  and  beg- 
gars .  .  .  and  by  refusing  to  take  a  shilling  from  a 
man  who  most  undoubtedly  would  not  have  had  another 
left,  I  had  reduced  an  income  of  about  ;^500  a  year  of 
the  dirtiest  money  on  earth,  to  little  more  than  £^00,  a 
considerable  portion  of  which  remained  with  my  clerk." 
This  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  his  place  was  not 
worth  more  to  him  than  ;^200  a  year.  His  house  was 
probably  rent  free,  and  he  had  his  pension,  whatever 
it  was,  in  addition.  But  his  writings  at  this  period  pro- 
duced him  a  good  deal  of  money.  He  received  £'joo 
for  Tom  Jones,  and  ;^8oo  or  ;^iooo  for  Amelia;  and 
possibly  the  Covent  Garden  Journal  and  his  pamphlets 
may  have  brought  him  in  enough  to  raise  the  whole  pro- 
ceeds of  his  pen  to  £1^00  or  ;{^2000,  which  would  be  up- 
wards of  ;^300  a  year  for  the  years  1749-54.  It  would, 
however,  look  as  if  he  had  not  husbanded  well  these 
sums,  for  speaking  of  a  period  only  a  twelve- month  after 
the  publication  of  Amelia,  he  says,  "  I  will  confess  that 
my  affairs  at  the  beginning  of  the  winter  (1752-53)  had 


8o  HENRY  FIELDING 

but  a  gloomy  aspect."  We  are  here  to  recollect  that 
1752  was  the  year  of  the  existence  of  the  Covent  Garden 
"Journal.  Viewing,  then,  the  matter  how  we  will,  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  imprudence  with  regard  to  money 
characterized  him  at  all  periods  of  his  life.  "His 
genius,"  writes  Lady  Mary  (June  5th,  1754),  "deserved 
a  better  fate;  but  I  cannot  help  blaming  that  continued 
indiscretion,  to  give  it  the  softest  name,  that  has  run 
through  his  life,  and  I  fear  still  remains." 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  Fielding  does  not 
appear  to  have  had  much,  if  any,  intimacy,  or  even 
acquaintance,  with  the  literary  men  of  the  day;  for  if 
he  had,  it  is  not  likely  that  he  who  I  may  say  goes 
out  of  his  way  to  praise  Hogarth,  for  example,  would 
have  left  their  names  and  works  unnoticed  in  his  novels. 
As  he  and  Thomson  were  both  the  intimates  of  Lyttleton, 
we  might  suppose  they  were  acquainted;  and  if  we 
believe  a  ridiculous  story  given  by  Mr.  Lawrence,  they 
were  so,  but  certainly  not  in  1731,  when  the  latter's 
play  of  Sophonisba  was  so  unmercifully  ridiculed  in  Tom 
Thumb.  The  truth  perhaps  is,  that  Fielding's  associa- 
tions were  chiefly  with  the  theatres  and  the  fashionable 
world,  and  he  had  little  relish  for  the  imaginative  poetry 
of  Thomson,  Akenside,  and  the  other  poets  of  the  time; 
while  except  Johnson,  then  little  known,  there  was 
hardly  any  prose  writer  of  eminence. 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  8i 

I  will  conclude  these  remarks  with  a  few  observa- 
tions on  Fielding's  principal  works. 

It  is  well  known  that  he  failed  as  a  dramatist,  and  it 
may  sufficiently  account  for  this  failure  to  say  that  he 
had  eminent  success  as  a  novelist.  I  might,  like  Sir 
Walter  Scott  and  others,  endeavour  to  account  philo- 
sophically for  this  fact;  but  such  displays  of  ingenuity 
are  needless.  It  is  a  fact  that  as  yet  no  man  has  suc- 
ceeded in  both  the  drama  and  prose  fiction;  just  as  no 
poet  has  succeeded  in  the  epos  and  in  the  drama.  Nay 
more,  to  Shakspeare  alone  does  it  seem  to  have  been 
given  to  succeed  alike  in  tragedy  and  in  comedy,  but  his 
poems  prove  that  he  would  never  have  succeeded  in  the 
epos.  Each  department  of  literature  appears  to  de- 
mand a  different  cast  of  intellect.  Of  Fielding's  dra- 
matic pieces  (many  of  them  no  doubt  flung  off  with  care- 
less rapidity).  The  Miser,  The  Mock  Doctor,  and  Tom 
Thumb,  alone  have  kept  a  place  on  the  stage;  all  three 
having  been  played  within  the  present  century.  The 
former  two  are  indebted  for  their  success  to  the  genius 
of  Moliere,  from  whom  they  were  borrowed,  the  latter 
to  its  extravagance  and  comic  absurdity.  The  far  larger 
portion  of  its  clever  parodies  must  have  escaped 
even  its  earliest  audiences,  as  being  on  pieces  little 
known  or  read;  but  it  is  certainly  still  very  pleasant  to 
read  it  with  the  notes  of  Scriblerus  Junior. 


82  HENRY  FIELDING 

Joseph  Andrews  first  revealed  to  Fielding  where  his 
real  power  lay.  It  had  its  origin,  I  am  convinced,  in 
pure  fun  and  mischief.  He  saw  that  Pamela  had  its 
ridiculous  side,  and  was  capable  of  giving  scope  for 
parody;  but  in  justice  to  Richardson,  I  must  say  that  it 
is  the  utmost  injustice  to  ascribe  art  to  his  heroine. 
Her  character  is,  in  my  eyes,  perfectly  pure  and  inno- 
cent, but  she  has  a  secret  and  unconscious  affection  for 
the  man  who  is  seeking  to  destroy  her  virtue.  But  how 
absurd  was  it  in  Richardson  to  ascribe  such  sense,  wis- 
dom I  might  say,  and  talents  to  a  girl  only  turned  of 
fifteen.     Fielding  is  never  so  false  to  nature  as  this. 

Fielding  tells  us  his  romance  is  written  in  imitation 
of  that  of  Cervantes.  The  resemblance,  I  presume, 
he  considered  to  consist  in  this,  that  the  one  was  intend- 
ed to  ridicule  the  romances  of  chivalry,  the  other  the 
biographies  of  Gibber  and  Pamela;  that  both  employ 
the  mock-epic  in  style;  both  contain  the  adventures  of 
two  personages  rambling  from  place  to  place;  both  are 
diversified  by  episodes,  &c.  But  there  is  one  great 
advantage  on  the  side  of  the  original,  it  rarely  if  ever 
offends  delicacy  in  scenes  or  language,  while  the  imita- 
tor gives  us  scenes  which  —  though  not  so  bad  as  some 
in  Pamela  —  offend,  at  least,  female  delicacy,  and  lan- 
guage unpleasing  to  modest  ears.  These  blemishes, 
however,  are  confined  to  the  first  book,  for  in  the  re- 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  83 

mainder  of  the  work  there  are  not  more  than  a  couple 
of  offensive  expressions.  Still  we  must  allow  that, 
although  Fielding  uses  coarse  and  indelicate  language 
he  is  never  prurient;  his  mind  was  too  vigorous  and 
manly  to  allow  of  it.  So  Shakspeare  is  often  wanton, 
but  never  prurient. 

Fielding  assures  us  that  he  took  all  his  characters 
in  this  work  direct  from  nature  (and  the  same  may  be 
asserted  of  his  other  works),  though  he  disguised  them 
so  that  the  original  could  not  be  recognised.  There 
is,  then,  little  doubt  that  his  friend  Young  sat  for  Parson 
Adams,  and  Peter  Walter  for  Peter  Pounce.  No  doubt 
he  had  met  with  a  Silpslop,  but  her  language  may  have 
been  suggested  by  that  of  Moria  in  the  Cynthia's  Revels 
of  Ben  Jonson,  of  whom  Fielding  was  a  reader  and 
admirer.  She  is  herself  the  original  of  Mrs.  Malaprop. 
In  all  his  works  of  fiction  we  meet  his  wife  under  one 
form  or  other;  for  as  Albano's  wife  was  the  modello  for 
his  Venuses  and  other  beautiful  female  forms,  so  Field- 
ing's appears  in  all  his  virtuous  women.  Fanny  is  what 
she  would  have  been  in  a  humble  rank;  Mrs.  Wilson 
adumbrates  her  as  the  generous  girl  who  without  reserve 
bestows  herself  and  her  fortune  on  her  imprudent  lover. 

I  am  decidedly  of  opinion  that  Joseph  Andrews  had 
the  further  merit  of  having  suggested  the  more  graceful 
and  elegant,  but  more  improbable.  Vicar  of  Wakefield. 


84  HENRY  FIELDING 

I  regard  the  Vicar  and  Mrs.  Primrose  as  Parson  Adams 
and  his  wife,  elevated,  refined,  and  polished,  ideaHzed 
as  it  were.  To  any  one  who  reads  the  two  works  care- 
fully, sundry  traits  will  show  that  the  author  of  the  one 
had  the  other  in  his  mind.  Such  are  the  reading  of 
the  little  boy  in  each,  and  the  rebuking  of  the  merriment 
at  the  wedding,  to  which  others  might  be  added,  if 
necessary. 

The  Journey  from  this  World  to  the  Next  is  to  me 
an  unpleasing  fiction.  The  main  requisite  for  such  a 
fiction  is  precisely  that  in  which  Fielding  was  most  de- 
ficient—  a  poetic  imagination.  It  will  therefore  rarely, 
I  think,  be  read  for  pleasure,  but  it  may  be  for  infor- 
mation, for  it  is  a  fund  of  acute  satire  and  profound 
observation  on  human  nature.  The  idea  seems  to 
have  been  suggested  by  the  Vision  of  Marraton  in  the 
Spectator,  and  the  Dream  in  the  Guardian  (No.  158), 
while  the  transmigrations  of  Julian  may  have  had  their 
origin  in  Pug's  letter  (Spectator,  No.  343),  or  in  the 
verses  in  the  first  scene  of  Jonson's  Volpone.  One  of 
the  best  things  in  it,  to  my  mind,  is  the  account  Julian 
gives  of  his  experiences  as  a  beggar,  in  the  nineteenth 
chapter;  and  the  description  of  the  palace  of  Death  is 
the  nearest  approach  that  Fielding  has  ever  made  to  the 
sublime.  In  this  work  alone,  which  however  is  unfin- 
ished, we  find  no  portrait  of  the  writer's  wife. 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  85 

The  Life  of  Jonathan  Wild  has  proved  a  perfect 
crux  to  the  critics,  a  proof  perhaps  that  it  may  have  a 
recondite  sense.  It  is  not  the  real  Hfe  of  that  villain, 
which  may  be  found  in  the  Newgate  Calendar,  or  in 
Watson's  Life  of  Fielding;  it  seems  rather  to  be  an 
attempt  at  forming  the  ideal  of  perfect  and  consummate 
villainy,  absorbed  in  self  and  unchecked  by  feeling  or 
remorse.  It  is  probable  that  Fielding,  while  studying 
the  law,  used  to  attend  at  the  Old  Bailey,  and  at  the 
justice-room  at  Bow-street,  that  he  thus  learned  some 
of  the  language  and  modes  of  procedure  of  those  whom 
he  denominates  prigs;  and  that  thence  the  idea  of  such 
a  work  may  have  arisen.  But  this  hypothesis  does  not 
quite  satisfy  me,  and  I  must  own  that  I  am  inclined  to 
see  in  it  a  scathing  political  satire,  like  Dante's  Inferno, 
where,  from  fear  of  the  consequences,  the  real  meaning 
is  so  veiled  as  to  be  hardly  discoverable  without  a  key. 
In  a  word,  my  suspicion  is  that  the  rather  unusual  terms. 
Prigs,  and  Prigism,  stand  for  Whigs  and  Whigism; 
and  that  Jonathan  Wild  is  Sir  Robert  Walpole;  the 
political  satire  perhaps  commencing  with  Wild's  for- 
mation of  his  gang,  what  precedes  being  given  chiefly 
for  the  purpose  of  putting  the  ordinary  reader  on  a 
wrong  scent.  Many  allusions  to  the  life,  both  public 
and  private,  of  this  Minister,  may,  I  think,  be  discerned 
throughout  the   work.     Fielding  had  made  two  poetic 


•» 


86  HENRY  FIELDING 

addresses  to  this  statesman,  and  he  had  dedicated  to 
him  his  play  of  The  Modern  Husband  in  very  adulatory 
terms.  He  may  have  been  stung  by  his  neglect,  and 
been  mortified  by  the  treatment  he  received  when  danc- 
ing attendance  on  him,  and  have  had  a  keen  recollection 
of  the  Licensing  Act  and  its  consequences  to  him,  and 
hence  have  conceived  a  bitter  resentment,  to  which  he 
thus  gave  vent.  If  it  be  objected  that  Fielding  was  a 
Whig  himself,  it  may  be  replied  that  he  was  only  so  in 
the  higher  and  purer  sense,  as  the  true  friend  of  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  while  he  had  a  thorough  contempt 
and  detestation  of  the  arts  and  the  corruption  of  states- 
men, whether  Whig  or  Tory.  There  can  certainly  be 
little  doubt  but  that  the  Roger  Johnson  whom  Wild 
supplants  in  Newgate,  is  Robert  Walpole,  and  this  would 
seem  to  militate  against  my  theory.  But  such  changes 
are  not  unusual  in  this  kind  of  satires,  and  I  take  Wild 
here  to  represent  Pultney,  who  was  the  chief  agent  in 
overthrowing  Walpole,  and  the  chapter  to  have  been 
inserted  by  Fielding  in  disgust  at  the  conduct  of  Wal- 
pole's  successors.  Heartfree  and  his  wife  (the  latter  as 
usual  adumbrated  from  Mrs.  Fielding)  seem  to  have 
been  introduced  only  to  vary  the  story  and  interest  by 
contrast;  yet  even  in  them  there  may  be  a  meaning 
which  I  am  unable  to  discern.  It  may  also  be  objected 
that  this  work  was  reprinted  with  additions  and  correc- 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  87 

tions,  in  1754,  after  Walpole,  and  with  him  Fielding's 
hostility,  had  been  dead  some  years,  and  when  he  was 
soon  to  style  him  "the  best  of  men."  The  reason  may 
have  been  that  the  object  of  his  satire  had  been  so  closely 
enveloped  that  it  had  not  been  discovered;  the  work 
had  been  generally  regarded  as  a  kind  of  romance,  and 
under  this  character  he  was  now  well  content  to  let  it 
continue. 

[If  my  hypothesis  respecting  Jonathan  Wild  be 
correct,  I  think  the  work  may  have  been  formed  in  the 
following  manner.  Fielding  may  have  written  the  satire 
in  the  heat  of  his  indignation  at  the  Licensing  Act,  but 
he  did  not  publish  it.  With  time  and  the  fall  of  Wal- 
pole in  1742,  his  anger  probably  expired,  and  the  satire 
would  never  have  seen  the  light,  had  he  not  been  pressed 
for  materials  to  make  up  his  Miscellanies  in  the  follow- 
ing year.  He  may  then  have  gone  over  his  Life  of 
Jonathan  Wild,  have  made  additions  to  it,  and  al- 
tered it  so  that  the  satire  might  not  easily  have  been 
discovered,  or  that  he  might  be  able  to  deny  that  it 
contained  any  individual  satire]. 

I  now  come  to  Tom  Jones,  the  matchless  Tom  Jones, 
on  which  I  could  almost  write  a  volume,  while  my  limits 
only  allow  me  to  correct  a  few  errors  and  misapprehen- 
sions. 

First  as  to  its  origin  and  the  reason  of  its  hero's  birth 


88  HENRY  FIELDING 

being  illegitimate.  This  Richardson  maliciously  as- 
cribed to  the  circumstance  of  the  author's  wife  having 
been  such;  while  Sir  Walter  Scott  thinks  that  "a  better 
reason  may  be  discovered  in  the  story  itself;  for  had 
Miss  Bridget  been  previously  married  to  the  father  of 
Tom  Jones,  there  could  have  been  no  adequate  motive 
assigned  for  keeping  his  birth  secret  from  a  man  so 
reasonable  and  compassionate  as  Allworthy."  All  this 
is  very  true,  and  yet  I  do  not  think  it  is  the  real  reason. 
Tom  Jones  and  Blifil  are  in  fact  the  Edgar  and  Edmund 
of  King  Lear  (they  afterwards  became  Charles  and 
Joseph  Surface),  and  from  what  Fielding  says  in  the 
dedication  of  his  work  to  Lyttleton,  I  suspect  that  it  was 
this  last  who  suggested  the  subject  to  him, which,  after  an 
incubation  of  some  years,  as  he  says,  came  to  the  world 
in  its  present  delightful  form.  Again,  it  is  the  vulgar 
opinion  that  Prior-park  is  Allworthy's  house.  Nothing 
can  be  more  absurd  than  this  idea,  their  sites  are  so 
totally  different.  The  real  site  of  Allworthy's  mansion 
was  Sharpham-Park,  near  Glastonbury  Abbey,  the 
author's  birth-place.  Thus  a  river  was  seen  to  meander 
from  it  for  several  miles,  "till  it  emptied  itself  into  the 
sea;  with  a  large  arm  of  which  and  an  island  beyond  it 
the  prospect  was  closed."  In  another  part  the  view 
was  "terminated  by  one  of  the  towers  of  an  old  ruined 
abbey,  grown  over  with  ivy,  and  part  of  the  front  which 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  89 

remained  entire."  Let  the  reader  compare  this  with 
a  map  of  Somersetshire,  and  he  will  see  that  I  am  right. 
Further,  Allworthy's  house  was  a  Gothic,  Allen's  a 
Grecian  structure. 

The  plot  of  Tom  Jones  is  generally  and  justly  ad- 
mired; the  skill  with  which  the  secret  of  the  hero's  birth 
is  preserved  to  near  the  end  is  deserving  of  all  praise. 
Yet  in  Amelia  the  secret  of  Serjeant  Atkinson's  chaste 
and  pure  affection  for  his  lovely  foster-sister  is  kept 
almost  as  well;  and  in  the  Emma  of  the  admirable  Jane 
Austen,  the  female  Fielding,  as  I  may  justly  call  her, 
no  less  than  two  love-secrets  are  kept  so  well  that  no 
one  has  a  conception  of  them,  and  yet  when  they  are  at 
last  revealed  we  find  that  numerous  circumstances  of 
the  narrative  have  had  an  evident  bearing  on  them. 
The  only  circumstances,  I  believe,  in  Tom  Jonesy  after 
the  early  part  and  before  the  latter,  which  have  a  con- 
nexion with  the  denouement,  are  the  coming  of  Dowling 
to  Allworthy's,  and  Jones's  meeting  with  him  at  Glou- 
cester, and  on  the  road  to  Coventry,  and  with  Mrs. 
Waters  at  Upton. 

It  is  curious  that  in  a  work  so  carefully  written  we 
should  be  able  to  find  a  glaring  anachronism  and  an 
equally  strong  anachorism.  It  was  certainly  not  till 
after  many  a  perusal  that  I  detected  either.  The  former 
I  find   had   been  noticed   by  a  correspondent  of  the 


90  HENRY  FIELDING 

Gentleman  s  Magazine  for  1791,  and  I  think  it  is  to  this 
that  the  late  Mr.  Armitage  Brown  alludes  in  his  ingen- 
ious Autobiography  of  Shakspeare.  I  do  not  know  that 
the  anachorism  has  ever  been  discerned. 

The  fifth  book  of  this  novel  ends  in  the  month  of 
June,  and  the  sixth,  as  the  heading  tells  us,  contains 
about  three  weeks,  toward  the  close  of  which  Jones  is 
discarded  by  AUworthy;  the  seventh  contains  three  days, 
and  the  eighth  two,  during  which  last  Jones  and 
Partridge  left  Gloucester  at  five  o'clock,  when  it  was 
nightfall,  for,  as  the  author  observes,  "it  was  now  mid- 
winter!" It  is  winter  during  all  the  rest  of  the  novel. 
How  Fielding  could  have  committed  such  an  error  is 
almost  inexpHcable.  Possibly  he  may  have  done  it  to 
mystify  the  reader,  and  to  imitate  similar  slips  in  Cer- 
vantes;   but  this  hypothesis  is  not  very  satisfactory.* 

The  following  anachorism  is,  if  possible,  more  inex- 
plicable. In  the  tenth  chapter  of  the  seventh  book 
Jones,  on  his  way  to  Bristol,  goes  astray,  and  when,  after 
nightfall,  he  is  inquiring  his  way  of  a  rustic,  a  Quaker 
comes  up,  and  induces  him  to  stop  for  the  night  in  the 
adjacent  village,  which  village,  as  we  are  informed  in  a 
note  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  tenth  book,  was  named 
Hambrook.  Now  Hambrook  is  in  Gloucestershire,  w^ith- 
in  four  miles  of  Bristol,  and  there  neither  was,  nor  I 
believe  is,  any  bridge  over  the  Avon  between  Bristol  and 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  91 

Bath,  except  the  one  near  this  last  city.  How,  then, 
did  not  only  Jones,  but  Sophia  and  Squire  Western  get 
across  ?  Further,  Fielding  was  probably  well  acquaint- 
ed with  this  road,  for  from  the  manner  in  which  he 
speaks  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Whitfield,  of  the  Bell  Inn,  in 
Gloucester,  it  is  quite  evident  that  he  must  have  been 
more  than  once  in  their  house,  and  he  must  also  have 
seen  the  view  which  he  describes  from  Mazzard  Hill, 
between  Gloucester  and  Upton.  The  only  way  in 
which  I  can  account  for  this  knowledge  is  by  supposing 
that  Fielding  used  occasionally,  when  the  circuit  was 
ended,  to  go  from  Bath  or  Bristol  to  Hagley  Park,  on  a 
visit  to  his  friend  Lyttleton,  whom  we  know  Thomson 
used  to  visit  once  a  year;  for  the  worthy  Sir  Thomas 
allowed  his  son  to  take  every  Hberty  of  this  kind.  Hence 
also  Fielding  seems  so  well  acquainted  with  the  road 
from  Coventry  to  London.  I  really,  then,  can  see  no 
adequate  way  of  accounting  for  the  mistake  about 
Hambrook:    it  is  a  strange  specimen  of  oscitancy. 

[It  seems  to  me  extremely  likely  that  one  time  or 
other,  if  not  more  than  once,  Lyttleton  may  have  met 
Fielding  at  Bath,  and  they  may  have  proceeded  together 
to  Hagley  Park.  I  infer  this  from  Fielding  having 
seen  the  view  from  Mazzard  Hill;  for  I  do  not  believe 
that  he  had  sufficient  taste  for  natural  scenery  and  ex- 
tensive rural  prospects,  to  induce  him  to  undergo  the 


92  HENRY  FIELDING 

toil  of  ascending  that  hill  by  himself  for  their  sake, 
while  I  can  easily  conceive  him  to  have  accompanied 
Lyttleton,  v^ho  had  that  taste  in  such  an  excursion,  and 
in  compliment  to  whom  he  may  have  introduced  the 
description.  I  cannot  help  thinking,  by  the  way,  that 
Sir  Thomas  Lyttleton  and  Hagley  Park  may  have  aided 
in  the  creation  of  Allworthy  and  his  residence]. 

But  there  is  another  strange  matter  connected  with 
Hambrook.  It  must  have  been  pretty  far  in  the  night 
when  the  soldiery  came  there,  and  as  they  could  only 
have  come  from  Bristol,  they  must  have  left  it  at  night 
and  so  have  marched  without  halting  all  that  night  and 
all  the  next  day,  a  most  unusual  circumstance,  even 
supposing  the  march  a  forced  one. 

It  is  rather  amusing  —  some  might  say  he  had  ex- 
perience for  his  guide  in  the  matter  —  how  he  makes 
his  personages  to  manage  without  money.  Parson 
Adams  is  on  his  way,  and  with  a  horse,  to  London,  with 
only  nine  and  sixpence  in  his  pocket;  Jones  is  going  as 
a  volunteer,  and  then  goes  to  London  with  only  the 
sixteen  guineas  that  Sophia  had  sent  him;  and  strangest 
of  all,  Sophia  herself,  after  sending  him  all  she  had  and 
losing  her  bank-bill,  has  still  plenty  of  money  in  her 
purse. 

I  trust  it  will  be  believed  that  it  is  merely  as  matters 
of  curiosity  that  I  point  out  these  slips  in  so  great  a 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  93 

writer:  Cervantes  has  fully  as  many,  and  of  equal 
magnitude;  and  those  in  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield  are  more 
numerous  still.  In  fact,  hardly  any  novelist,  unless  it 
be  Jane  Austen  —  in  whose  works  I  have  been  unable 
to  detect  any  such  —  has  escaped  this  danger.  With 
respect  to  her,  if  we  did  not  know  that  her  narratives  are 
fictitious,  we  might  suppose  they  related  nothing  but 
real  events. 

In  Tom  Jones,  as  in  Fielding's  other  novels,  every 
character  may  be  said  to  be  real;  for  he  never  painted 
without  a  modello.  The  tradition  of  Salisbury,  as  Mr. 
Greenley  informed  me,  is  that  Thwackum  was  Dr.  Hale, 
the  master  of  the  Cathedral-school;  and  that  Square 
was  Chubb,  the  deist,  a  tallow-chandler  in  that  city; 
while  two  squires  in  the  neighbourhood  vie  for  the 
honour  of  being  represented  in  Western.  But  this  is 
all  rather  uncertain,  and  as  for  the  Squire  in  particular, 
such  characters  were  "plenty  as  blackberries"  at  that 
time  in  the  country-parts  of  England.  Lady  Bellaston 
is  said  to  have  been  Lady  Townshend,  but  this  I  doubt, 
as  she  has  none  of  that  lady's  peculiarities,  Hke  Lady 
Tempest  in  Pompey  the  Little,  which  certainly  represents 
her.  Allworthy  is  Allen  and  Lyttleton  idealized;  and 
Sophia,  the  charming  Sophia,  is  of  course  Mrs.  Fielding, 
in  confirmation  of  which  it  may  be  observed  that  in 
Amelia  there  is  hardly  any  description  of  the  heroine's 


94  HENRY  FIELDING 

person,  because  that  had  been  described  at  full  length 
in  the  earlier  tale. 

In  a  rather  tasteless  critique  on  Tom  Jones^  I  find  it 
stated  that  "a  hving  (in  1811)  female  writer  has  ar- 
raigned the  delicacy  of  Sophia  for  riding  about  the  coun- 
try after  her  lover."  The  critic  very  properly  defends 
her,  and  hints  that  the  objector  perhaps  had  never  felt  the 
power  of  love.  In  truth  Sophia  might  have  cried  with 
Racine's  Atalaide  (and  Racine  knew  something  of 
these  matters). 

Ah,  Zaire  !  I'amour  a-t-il  tant  de  prudence  ? 

For  my  own  part,  I  love  Sophia  all  the  better  for  this, 
and  for  her  fib  to  Lady  Bellaston,  and  her  flattery  of 
her  aunt.  It  shows  she  was  a  real,  genuine  woman,  and 
not  an  ideal  creation. 

We  constantly  hear  of  the  vices  of  Jones.  I  must 
confess  I  never  could  discern  them.  Vice  is  a  habit, 
and  he  had  no  vicious  habit.  He  did  not  drink,  swear, 
lie,  cheat,  game,  oppress,  malign,  &c.  No  doubt  on  a 
few  occasions  he  yielded  to  temptations  that  few  men 
could  resist.  I  allude  of  course  to  his  dealings  with  the 
fair  sex.  As  to  the  first  with  Molly  Seagrim,  any  one 
who  recollects  the  kind  of  person  that  Jones  is  described 
as  being,  and  what  the  English  peasantry  are,  will  see 
that  it  was  almost  impossible  that  some  girl  would  not 
have  laid  herself  out  to  seduce  him,  and  of  course  have 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  95 

succeeded.  We  must  always  recollect  that  Fielding 
painted  men  as  they  are,  not  as  they  ought  to  be,  and 
that  Xenocrates  are  rather  rare.  His  renewed  acquaint- 
ance with  her  on  the  day  of  Allworthy's  recovery  is  ex- 
plained by  his  having  drunk  too  much  wine.  The  affair 
with  Mrs.  Waters,  too,  at  Upton,  is  really  a  sort  of 
matter  of  course;  few  young  men  of  spirit  would  have 
refused  the  challenge.  That  with  Lady  Bellaston  seems 
of  a  deeper  die.  Here  the  critics  treat  him  as  a  degraded 
wretch  who  actually  submitted  to  be  taken  into  keeping. 
Even  if  he  had  done  so,  he  would  have  had  high  people  to 
keep  him  in  countenance.  Lord  A.  Hamilton,  for  ex- 
ample, a  son  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  was  kept  publicly 
at  that  time  by  a  Miss  Edwards,  a  lady  of  fortune,  and 
he  was  not  excluded  from  society  (nor  perhaps  was  she 
either).  Lady  Vane,  who  was  married  to  his  brother, 
describes  him  as  coming  to  visit  them  in  great  state. 
The  simple  fact  is,  Jones  was  regularly  trepanned  by  the 
artful  lady,  and  a  bank  bill  was  forced  upon  him  who 
had  not  a  shilling  in  his  pocket;  the  whole  time  of  their 
acquaintance  did  not  exceed  a  week,  and  after  the  first 
they  had  but  one  private  meeting.  What  regular  con- 
tract was  there  here  ?  what  continuance  of  vicious  inti- 
macy, as  is  usually  assumed  ?  I  declare  I  doubt  if  Jones's 
moral  guilt  is  not  greater  in  going  to  board  and  lodge 
himself  and  servant  with  poor  Mrs.  Miller,  when  he  had 


96  HENRY  FIELDING 

no  money,  and  no  prospect  of  getting  any.  We  must 
also  never  leave  out  of  viewr  that  Jones  is  most  severely 
punished  for  all  his  transgressions  in  this  v^ay.  Think 
of  his  agonies  when  he  learns  from  Partridge  that  Mrs. 
Waters  was  his  mother!  I  once  recommended  Tom 
Jones  to  a  lady  who  has  since  written  some  very  pleasing 
novels.  She  read  it,  and  wrote  to  me  to  say  that  in  her 
opinion  it  was  not  merely  a  moral,  but  a  rehgious  book. 
And  she  was  right,  for  the  final  and  permanent  impres- 
sion which  it  leaves  on  the  mind  is  most  strongly  in  fa- 
vour of  religion  and  virtue.  Who  can  escape  improve- 
ment from  the  contemplation  of  such  characters  as 
Sophia  and  AUworthy  1  It  has  been  my  favourite  from 
my  very  boyhood,  and  I  think  I  may  say  without  vanity, 
that  my  moral  sense  is  so  strong  that  such  could  not 
have  been  the  case  if  its  tendency  had  been  adverse  to 
virtue;    I  never  could  take  to  Byron. 

[Mr.  James  Haywood  Markhand  has  very  kindly 
transmitted  to  me  a  lecture  delivered  by  him  in  Bath, 
in  August,  1856,  on  the  history  and  antiquities  of  that 
city.  It  contains  the  following  passage  relating  to 
Tom  Jones: — "An  excellent  prelate,  now  living,  told 
me  that"  he  would  not  hesitate  placing  the  book  in  the 
hands  of  a  young  man,  if  accompanied  with  suitable 
caution  and  advice."] 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY 


97 


Amelia  is  no  doubt  the  setting  sun.  Beautiful  and 
interesting  as  it  is,  it  wants  the  freshness,  the  vigour, 
the  varied  charms  of  its  predecessors,  its  tone  is  too 
uniformly  sombre.  Amelia,  indeed,  stands  forth  in 
celestial  purity;  Dr.  Harrison  is  kind  and  good;  honest 
Atkinson's  pure  and  chaste  love  for  his  sweet  foster- 
sister  is  delightful;  and  Mrs.  Bennet,  with  all  her 
pedantry  and  vanity,  is  much  to  be  Hked;  Colonel  Bath 
is  a  preux  chevalier.  But  Booth  is  weak  —  no  worse, 
for  I  cannot  assent  to  the  terms  worthless  and  such 
like  so  liberally  bestowed  on  him  —  and  almost  all  the 
rest  are  bad.  Booth,  like  Jones,  succumbs  to  tempta- 
tion twice.  The  first,  all  the  circumstances  considered, 
I  must  regard  as  irresistible  by  any  man  of  ordinary 
mould.  In  the  latter,  by  a  little  virtuous  resolution  he 
might  have  escaped.  Yet  how  many  instances  of  simi- 
lar weakness  have  I  known! 

I  regard  the  following  circumstance  as  a  proof  of 
decadence  in  Amelia:  many  characters  and  events 
are  taken  from  the  author's  plays.  Thus  in  the  Justice 
caught  in  his  own  Trap,  we  meet  with  the  good  and  the 
bad  justice,  the  bailiff  and  the  spunging-house;  in  the 
Temple  Beau,  Veromil  recovers  his  property  in  the  same 
manner  as  Amelia  does;  while  in  the  Modern  Husband 
we  have  in  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bellamont,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 


98  HENRY  FIELDING 

Modern,  and  Lord  Richly,  the  germs  of  Booth  and 
Ameha,  Captain  Trent,  Miss  Matthews,  the  Lord,  and 
Colonel  James. 

One  valuable  feature  in  Amelia  is  the  directing 
attention  to  various  legal  and  social  evils,  many  of 
which  were  not  removed  till  our  own  days.  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that  we  are  really  so  very  far  in  advance  of 
our  forefathers  in  morality  as  we  fancy;  but  we  cer- 
tainly do  not  perform  our  immoral  acts  so  openly  as 
they  did;  we  contrive  to  cast  a  veil  over  matters  in 
which  they  had  no  concealment.  It  would  now,  for 
instance,  be  almost  libellous  to  say  that  people  in  office 
or  of  influence  touched,  as  it  was  termed,  for  procuring 
places,  &c.,  yet  the  thing  still  exists.  I  know  a  case 
myself  where  an  offer  was  made  to  procure  a  baronetcy, 
but  it  was  intimated  that  the  parties  expected  to  touch 
pretty  handsomely.  Let  us  not,  then,  plume  ourselves 
too  much,  when  we  recollect  the  railways,  joint-stock 
banks,  adulteration  of  food,  accommodation  bills,  and 
many  other  circumstances  of  our  own  day. 

Amelia,  too,  has  its  improbabilities,  of  which  I  shall 
only  notice  the  following.  Miss  Matthews  in  the  prison 
receives  a  letter  and  a  bank-bill  from  Colonel  James. 
Now  from  her  preceding  history,  it  is  utterly  impossible 
that  he  could  at  that  time  have  known  anything  about 
her.     The  appearance  there  of  Amelia  seems  also  inex- 


LIFE  BY  KEIGHTLEY  99 

plicable,  and  it  is  only  at  the  end  of  the  work  that  we 
can  at  all  account  for  it,  and  that  without  any  assistance 
from  the  author. 

Independently  of  their  value  as  the  creations  of  gen- 
ius, the  novels  of  Fielding  are  inestimable  as  genuine 
pictures  of  English  manners  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century.     "  Oh ! "  exclaimed  Dr.  Arnold,  "  if  we  had  but 
a  Tom  Jones  of  the  times  of  Augustus ! "     As  an  instance 
I  may  mention  that  from  this  novel  we  learn  that  it  was 
so  much  the  custom  at  that  time  for  ladies  to  travel 
on  horseback,  that  side-saddles  were  kept  at  all  the  inns 
throughout  the  country.     I  do  not  recollect  to  have  met 
with  any  allusion  to  this  custom  in  any  other  work, 
novel,  play,  or  poem  of  that  time.     Sir  Walter  Scott 
also  observes  that  Fielding's  novels  are  so  thoroughly 
English  that  no  one  can  perfectly  understand  them  who 
has  not  been  born,  or  at  least  lived  some  time,  in  England. 
Of  the  truth  of  this  remark  I  can  myself  bear  witness; 
for  I  thought  I  understood  them  thoroughly  till  I  went 
to  live  for  some  time  in  one  of  the  southern  counties, 
when  I  discovered  many  traits  of  manners  in  them,  of 
the  existence  of  which  I  had  previously  been  uncon- 
scious. 

Without  possessing  the  grace  and  elegance  of  Addi- 
son and  Goldsmith,  the  lightness  and  vivacity  of  Lesage, 
or  the  dignity  and  rotundity  of  Cervantes,  Fielding  was 


100  HENRY  FIELDING 

master  of  a  vigourous,  manly,  and  truly  English  style, 
though  occasionally  incorrect.  His  most  remarkable 
peculiarity  is  the  constant  employment,  no  matter  who 
is  the  speaker,  of  hath  and  doth  for  has  and  does.  This 
occurs,  I  believe,  in  no  other  writer  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

Fielding  is  to  be  classed  among  those  writers  who  are 
invidiously  styled  egotists,  because  they  speak  freely  of 
themselves,  their  feelings,  opinions,  affairs,  and  works. 
This  formula  contains  many  great  names  —  such  as 
Horace,  Montaigne,  Milton,  Boileau,  Pope,  and  others 
(and  most,  if  not  all  of  these  were  eminent  for  good 
taste  and  knowledge  of  the  world);  besides  the  whole 
band  of  autobiographers.  If  I  may  judge  by  my  own 
feelings,  writers  of  this  class  are  the  most  delightful.  I 
never,  in  fact,  could  read  the  Exegi  monumentum  of 
Horace,  or  the  Address  to  Fame  of  Fielding,  without  a 
secret  elation  of  mind  and  rejoicing  at  seeing  their 
anticipations  so  fully  verified.  The  proper  place  for 
this  egotism  is  the  preface,  which  I  regard  as  the  author's 
manor,  for  a  well-constructed  work  requires  no  preface; 
and  if  he  adheres  rigidly  to  truth,  and  endeavours  to 
form  a  just  estimate  of  himself  and  his  powers,  though 
the  envious  and  little-minded  may  carp  and  sneer,  he 
may  be  sure  that  he  will  command  the  sympathy  of  all 
whose  minds  have  been  cast  in  the  mould  of  taste,  good 
feeling,  and  generosity. 


LIFE   BY   KEIGHTLEY  loi 

I  have  now,  I  trust,  fulfilled  the  promise  I  made  at 
setting  out.  Had  I  not  been  limited  in  space  I  should 
have  been  more  copious,  and  of  course  more  convincing, 
on  some  points,  and  have  treated  of  various  other  mat- 
ters v^hich  I  have  been  obliged  to  omit. 


ANNOTATIONS 


'Tkc  R^ktHon.Ba/l. 


ytai-isK-ji 


ANNOTATIONS 


^  Mr.  Keightley's  doubts  have  been  sustained  by  Mr.  J.  H. 
Round,  in  the  Genealogist  for  April  1894,  by  Mr.  A.  C.  Fox-Davies  and 
other  competent  authorities,  and  the  connection  of  the  house  of  Den- 
bigh with  the  counts  of  Hapsburg  is  now  generally  discredited.  It  is 
well  that  this  tradition  was  not  dispelled  before  Gibbon  wrote  his  fine 
passage:  "The  successors  of  Charles  the  Fifth  may  disdain  their 
humble  brethren  of  England;  but  the  romance  of  Tom  Jones,  that 
exquisite  picture  of  human  manners,  will  outlive  the  palace  of  the 
Escurial  and  the  Imperial  Eagle  of  the  house  of  Austria." 

2  Andrew  Kippis  is  referred  to  here.  He  edited  the  second 
edition  of  the  Biographica  Britannica  in  1777-93.  The  anecdote  is 
related  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for  1 786.  In  a  book-plate  of 
Basil  Fielding,  Earl  of  Denbigh,  dated  1703,  and  here  reproduced,  it 
will  be  noticed  the  Earl  spells  his  name  as  the  novelist  spelled  his. 

3  To  "Notes  and  Queries"  for  September  6,  1862  (Third  Series, 
Vol.  II,  p.  199),  Mr.  Keightley  communicates  the  following: 

"Some  time  ago,  when  engaged  in  inquiries  relating  to  Fielding, 
I  thought  of  looking  at  Doctors'  Commons  for  the  will  of  his  grand- 
father, Sir  H.  Gould.  I  found  it  there  and  have  a  copy  of  it.  It  is 
very  short,  and  seems  chiefly  to  have  been  made  for  the  sake  of  pro- 
viding for  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Fielding,  and  it  was  executed  on  the 
eighth  of  March,  1706-7,  a  little  before  the  birth  of  her  first  child, 
Henry.  In  this  he  says,  T  give  to  my  son  William  Day  3,000  1.  in 
trust  for  the  sole  and  separate  use  of  my  daughter  Sarah  Fielding,' 


io6  HENRY  FIELDING 

&c.  Then  after  giving  loo  1.  to  his  wife,  he  adds,  'And  all  the  rest  of 
my  goods,  chattels,  and  plates,  debts  and  money,  I  give  to  my  son 
Davidge  Gould,  whom  I  make  my  whole  and  sole  executor  of  this 
my  last  will  and  testament.'  I  am  no  lawyer,  but  I  presume  that 
William  Day  Gould  was  the  eldest  son,  who  came  in  for  the  landed 
property;  and  I  have  an  impression  on  my  mind  that  he  was  the  father 
of  the  second  Sir  Henry,  who  was,  beyond  doubt,  Henry  Fielding's 
first  cousin,  to  whose  Miscellanies  he  was  a  subscriber  in  1743. 

"It  is  rather  remarkable  that  the  name  of  one  of  the  witnesses  to 
Sir  Henry  Gould's  will  is  William  Day,  a  relation  it  may  be  supposed." 
-Thos.  Keightley. 

^To  THE  SECOND  EDITION  oi  David  Simple,  published  in  1744, 
Henry  Fielding  contributed  the  introduction.  In  1797  there  was 
published  in  Paris  the  "CEuvres  complettes  de  M.  Fielding,"  and 
volumes  11  to  14  contain  the  "Aventures  de  Roderick  Random;  par 
Fielding,"  while  volumes  18  to  20  are  devoted  to  "David  Simple;  ou 
le  Veritable  Ami."  Odder  yet,  George  Virtue,  the  London  publisher, 
issued  in  1822  an  edition  oi David  Simple  which  he  credited  to  "  Henry 
Fielding,  Esq.,  author  of  Tom  Jones,  &c.,  "  and,  though  giving  an 
extended  biography  of  our  author,  in  which  David  Simple  is  not  once 
mentioned,  the  introduction,  the  only  thing  Henry  Fielding  contribut- 
ed to  the  volume,  is  omitted. 

^  The  CLERGYMAN  of  Motcombe,  a  neighbouring  village  says 
Hutchins,  quoted  by  Austin  Dobson. 

^The  SECOND  EDITION  of  the  Miscellanies  is  not  as  rare  as  Mr. 
Keightley  supposes,  but  its  identity  is  obscure.  It  bears  the  same 
date  as  the  first,  1743.  Volumes  I  and  III  are  noted  on  the  title- 
page  as  "  The  Second  Edition  "  while  Volume  II  omits  this  line. 
So  this  set  is  sometimes  quoted  by  booksellers  as  "Vols.  I  and  III, 
second  edition;   Vol.  II,  first  edition."     But  these  editions  are  easily 


ANNOTATIONS  107 

to  be  distinguished  from  the  fact  that  the  first  is  noted  as  "Printed 
for  the  Author  and  Sold  by  A.  Millar,"  while  the  second  edition  was 
"Printed  for  A.  Millar." 

^  Mr.  George  Saintsbury  in  his  general  Introduction  to  Field- 
ing's works  published  by  Messrs.  Dent  &  Co.  in  1893,  thus  disposes  of 
this  story:  "Horace  Walpole  at  second-hand  draws  us  a  Fielding, 
pigging  with  low  companions  in  a  house  kept  like  a  hedge  tavern; 
Fielding  himself,  within  a  year  or  two,  shows  us  more  than  half- 
undesignedly  in  the  Voyage  to  Lisbon  that  he  was  very  careful  about 
the  appointments  and  decency  of  his  table,  that  he  stood  rather  upon 
ceremony  in  regard  to  his  own  treatment  of  his  family,  and  the  treat- 
ment of  them  and  himself  by  others,  and  that  he  was  altogether  a  per- 
son orderly,  correct,  and  even  a  little  finikin.  Nor  is  there  the  slightest 
reasonable  reason  to  regard  this  as  a  piece  of  hypocrisy,  a  vice  as  alien 
from  the  Fielding  of  fancy  as  from  the  Fielding  of  fact,  and  one  the 
particular  manifestation  of  which,  in  this  particular  place,  would 
have  been  equally  unlikely  and  unintelligible." 

*  Errors  in  "Tom  Jones  "-Real  and  Unreal:  This  ana- 
chronism, the  speedy  transformation  of  the  scene  of  the  novel  from 
summer  to  winter,  was  not  discovered  by  Mr.  Keightley,as  he  acknowl- 
edges, but  was  first  pointed  out  by  a  correspondent  in  the  Gentleman' s 
Magazine  for  May,  1 79 1,  vol.  xli,  page  434.  As  the  item  is  brief  it 
may  be  quoted  entire: 
"Mr.  Urban:  May  6. 

I  should  be  much  obliged  if  any  of  your  correspondents  can  inform  me  who  was 
the  author  of  the  second  volume  of  Maitland's  History  of  Scotland;  for,  as  the  title-page 
teaches  us,  Maitland  only  wrote  the  first. 

"In  the  celebrated  novel  of  Tom  Jones,  we  find  the  first  volume  closes  in  the  month 
of  June;  the  second  volume  contains  three  weeks,  five  days,  twelve  hours,  and  in  the 
end  we  find  a  hard  and  long  frost:  the  other  two  volumes  proceed  with  winter  trans- 
actions.   How  is  this  to  be  palliated  ?  Hinc  Indc." 


io8  HENRY  FIELDING 

The  battle-royal  took  place  at  the  latter  end  of  June,  call  it,  if 
you  will,  June  23.  Book  vi  recounts  the  events  of  three  weeks  which 
would  bring  Jones's  dismissal  by  Allworthy  to  July  14.  Book  vii  ac- 
counts for  three  days  and  brings  Jones  to  the  Inn  at  Hambrook  on, 
say,  July  17.  Book  viii  tells  of  two  days  only,  and  announces  that 
it  was  now  midwinter,  tho'  according  to  the  author's  chronology  it 
could  not  have  been  later  than  July  19,  or  if  you  place  the  battle  at 
June  30,  the  latest  possible  date,  midwinter  appears  on  July  26. 
This  error  simply  cannot  be  explained  away,  but  if  we  insist  upon 
some  explanation  Mr.  Keightley's  effort  will  do  as  well  as  another. 

Mr.  Keightley's  own  discovery,  that  Sophia  had  apparently 
plenty  of  money  in  her  purse  after  losing  her  bank-bill,  is  of  compara- 
tively little  importance,  I  think.  After  sending  Jones  all  the  money 
she  had,  Sophia,  in  Book  vii.  Chapter  ix,  pretends  to  acquiesce  in  her 
father's  demands,  and  the  delighted  squire  gives  her  "a  large  bank 
note,"  but  he  may  in  addition  have  given  her  a  hand-full  of  guineas 
and  at  the  worst  the  author  can  be  blamed  only  for  his  failure  to  re- 
count the  incident.  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  man  and  she 
may  well  have  been  possessed  of  money  without  it  being  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  author  to  tell  how  she  got  it. 

Mr.  Keightley's  anachorism  "is,  if  possible,  more  inexplicable," 
and  we  wonder  how  he  could  have  written  that  "there  neither  was,  nor 
I  believe  is,  any  bridge  over  the  Avon  between  Bristol  and  Bath,"  and 
he  asks,  "how  then  did  not  only  Jones,  but  Sophia  and  Squire  Western 
get  across  ?"  Bath  is  about  twelve  miles  from  Bristol  by  the  old  high- 
way, and  there  were  in  the  eighteenth  century  at  least  two  bridges 
crossing  the  Avon  between  Bath  and  Bristol.  One,  a  stone  bridge 
with  a  single  arch,  connected  the  two  roads  between  Bath  and  Bristol 
about  two  miles  from  Bath,  and  the  other  crossed  the  Avon  near 
Keynsham,  five  miles  below  the  other  bridge,  or  seven  miles  from 


ANNOTATIONS  109 

Bath  and  five  from  Bristol,  just  below  the  mouth  of  the  river  Chew. 
Over  either  of  these  two  bridges  our  travellers  could  have  passed  with- 
out hindrance  from  Somersetshire  into  Gloucestershire.  Mr.  Keight- 
ley  could  have  proved  the  existence  of  these  bridges  by  consulting 
Paterson's  British  Itinerary,  1785;  or  Archibald  Robertson's  Topo- 
graphical Survey  of  the  great  road  from  London  to  Bath  and  Bristol, 
1792. 

Mr.  J.  F.  Meehan,  of  Bath,  writes  me  as  follows  under  date  of 
August  28,  1907:  "The  bridge  over  the  Avon  about  two  miles  from 
Bath,  connecting  the  two  roads  between  Bath  and  Bristol,  is  now 
known  as  Newton  Bridge.  It  was  built  by  John  Strahan,  land  sur- 
veyor and  architect,  of  Bristol  and  Bath,  about  1727-28.  The  bridge 
was  rebuilt  later  in  the  i8th  century,  and  widened  about  1826.  It 
was  considerably  repaired  about  three  or  four  years  ago.  The  bridge 
about  five  miles  further  on  over  the  Avon  is  at  the  eastern  side  of 
Keynsham.  This  bridge  is  shown  in  a  map  of  Somerset  dated  161  r. 
It  was  partially  destroyed  to  prevent  Monmouth  approaching  Bristol 
in  1685,  and  was  repaired  by  Monmouth  in  1688." 

Mr.  Keightley  contributed  all  these  criticisms  to  Notes  and 
Queries,  May  30,  1863,  Third  Series,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  424,  425;  and  it 
is  strange  that  the  wide-awake  readers  of  this  paper  did  not  point 
out  his  errors  in  topography.     To  his  list  he  adds  the  following: 

"  I  will  notice  another  topographical  error.  Sophia  and  her 
cousin,  on  their  flight  from  Upton,  arrive  at  a  town,  where  they 
meet  the  Irish  Lord.  From  all  the  circumstances  this  town  must 
have  been  Evesham,  and  they  must  have  gone  to  London  by  Ox- 
ford. Yet  when  Jones  follows  them,  he  comes  to  Coventry;  and  so, 
though  we  hear  nothing  of  it,  must  have  passed  through  Stratford 
and  Warwick.  The  only  way  I  can  account  for  this,  is  by  supposing 
the  work  to  have  been  laid  aside  again  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh 


no  HENRY  FIELDING 

book;  and  that  the  author,  before  he  returned  to  it,  had  been  down 
again  at  Hagley,  going  from  London  and  returning  through  Cov- 
entry." 

Now  why  does  Mr.  Keightley  insist  that  the  town  where  Sophia  and 
Mrs.  Fitzgerald  meet  the  Irish  Lord  must  have  been  Evesham  ?  The 
Irish  Lord  was  probably  posting  to  London,  having  crossed  the 
channel  from  Dublin  to  Holyhead  and  from  there  the  most  direct  post 
road  to  London  passed  through  Chester  and  Coventry  and  not  through 
Evesham  at  all.  Evesham  again  is  far  south  of  Coventry,  and  yet 
when  Jones  reaches  this  inn  he  tries  to  get  horses  to  take  him  to  Coven- 
try whither  Sophia  had  gone  on  her  way  to  London.  Evesham  is 
therefore  entirely  out  of  the  question,  and  the  inn  must  have  been 
somewhere  a  few  miles  north  of  Coventry  on  the  highway  between 
London  and  Chester.  Possibly  this  inn  may  have  been  at  Coleshill, 
twelve  miles  beyond  Coventry.  Jones  departed  from  the  inn  during 
the  early  evening,  after  dinner,  and  reached  Coventry  about  midnight, 
though  detained  by  storm  in  the  barn  with  the  gypsies  for  an  hour  or 
more.  This  would  give  the  party  three  or  four  hours  on  the  road  and 
one  or  two  in  the  barn,  long  enough  for  Partridge  to  get  into  trouble 
with  the  gypsy  woman,  and  long  enough  for  the  saddle  horses  to  carry 
the  party  twelve  miles  over  a  straight  road  to  Coventry,  but  not  long 
enough  to  take  Jones  and  his  party  by  night  over  cross-roads  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  thirty  miles  from  Evesham  to  Coventry. 

From  Coventry  the  road  to  London  was  easy  to  follow,  though  it 
passed  through  no  considerable  towns.  Mr.  Keightley  insists  that 
Sophia  must  have  gone  to  London  from  Evesham  through  Oxford,  but 
we  are  told  in  Chapter  xiii  of  Book  xii  exactly  what  route  Jones  took, 
and  that  all  the  time  he  was  following  Sophia.  He  passes  through 
Daventry,  in  Northamptonshire,  nineteen  miles  from  Coventry;  also 
through  Stratford,  not  on  the  Avon,  for  this  is  Old  Stratford,  or  Stony 


ANNOTATIONS  in 

Stratford  on  the  Ouse,  on  the  border  between  Northampton  and  Bucks, 
and  about  twenty  miles  from  Daventry.  Dunstable,  in  Bedfordshire, 
eighteen  miles  further  on,  is  reached  the  next  day  at  noon,  a  few  hours 
after  Sophia  had  left  it,  and  yet  according  to  Mr.  Keightley's  theory 
she  should  have  been  at  Oxford  at  that  time.  Thirteen  miles  more 
brings  Jones  to  St.  Albans,  in  Herts,  only  two  hours  behind  Sophia. 
It  was  two  miles  beyond  Barnet,  or  near  Whetstone,  that  Jones  fell  in 
with  the  stranger  who  tried  to  rob  him  at  a  mile  from  Highgate,  or 
some  five  miles  north  of  London. 

There  is  no  error  in  all  of  this  except  in  Mr.  Keightley's  unreason- 
able speculation,  that  Evesham  was  the  point  of  departure  for  London. 
Call  the  place  Coleshill  and  all  difficulty  disappears. 


APPENDIX  A 


BIOGRAPHIES  OF  FIELDING 


BIOGRAPHIES   OF   HENRY   FIELDING 

Allibone,  S.  Austin.  A  Critical  Dictionary  of  English  Literature 
and  British  and  American  Authors  Living  and  Deceased;  from  the 
Earliest  Accounts  to  the  latter  half  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Vol.  L 
Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.,  1874. 

Fielding,  pp.  591-595-     Contains  valuable  notes  and  references. 

Anonymous.  Adventures  in  search  of  a  Real  Friend,  through  the 
Citiesof  London  and  Westminster.  By  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.;  Author 
of  Tom  Jones,  etc.  London:  Printed  by  S.  Cave;  and  published  by 
G.  Virtue,  6  Panger  Alley,  Paternoster  Row,  1822. 

Life  of  Henry  Fielding,  pp.  vii-xvi.  This  biography  is  a  mere  abbreviation  of 
Murphy's  Essay,  and  this  story  of  David  Simple  was  written  by  Henry  Fielding's  sister 
Sarah.  The  only  thing  that  Henry  Fielding  contributed  to  the  story  was  the  Preface, 
and  this  the  sapient  Editor  omits. 

Barbauld,  Mrs.  Anna  Letitia.  The  History  of  the  Adventures 
of  Joseph  Andrews  and  his  Friend  Mr.  Abraham  Adams.  The  British 
Novelists,  Vol.  XVHL     London:   F.  C.  and  J.  Rivington, &c.,  1810. 

"Fielding,"  pp.  i-xxxii.     Second  edition,  London,  1820. 

Creasy,  Edward  S.  Memoirs  of  Eminent  Etonians;  with  No- 
tices of  the  Early  History  of  Eton  College.  By  Edward  S.  Creasy, 
M.  A.,  Barrister  at  Law;  Professor  of  History  in  University  College, 
London;  Late  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge;  formerly  New- 
castle scholar,  Eton.  London:  Richard  Bentley,  New  Burlington 
Street;    Publisher  in  Ordinary  to  Her  Majesty,  1850. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  281-299. 


ii6  HENRY  FIELDING 

Cunningham,  George  G.  Lives  of  Eminent  and  Illustrious 
Englishmen,  from  Alfred  the  Great  to  the  Latest  Times;  on  an  orig- 
inal plan.  Vol.  V.  Glasgow:  Fullarton  &  Co.,  no  Brunswick 
Street;   and  6  Roxburgh  Place,  Edinburgh,  mdcccxxxvii. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  221-227. 

DoBSON,  Austin.     Fielding.     London:   Macmillan  and  Co.,  1883. 
Pp.  xii,  196.     "English  Men  of  Letters;"  edited  by  John  Morley. 

Idem.     New   York:    Harper    &    Brothers,   Publishers, 

Franklin  Square,  1883. 

Pp.  X,  184. 

Idem.     Revised    and    Enlarged   Edition.     New   York: 

Dodd,  Mead  and  Company,  Publishers,  N.  D.  [1900]. 

One  prel.  leaf,  pp.  xviii,  315.  Portrait.  Probably  no  better  thing  than  this  will 
be  done  for  Fielding. 

Idem.     London:   Macmillan  and  Co.,  1902. 

Pp.  xii,  210.  Does  not  contain  the  later  notes  incorporated  in  the  New  York 
edition  of  1 900. 

The  Journal  of  a  Voyage  to  Lisbon.  By  Henry  Field- 
ing; with  Introduction  and  Notes  by  Austin  Dobson.  London: 
printed  and  issued  by  Charles  Whittingham  &  Co.,  at  the  Chiswick 
Press,  MDCCCXcii. 

"Editor's  Introduction,"  pp.  v-xxi.  [Hogarth's  Sketch  of  Fielding],  p.  ii.  "Illus- 
trative Notes,"  pp.  235-277.  Notes  reprinted  in  Vol.  XVI  of  Fielding's  Works,  New 
York:  Croscup  and  Sterling [1903],  pp.  3, 169-176, 285-308. 

Eighteenth    Century  Vignettes.     London:     Chatto    & 

Windus,  Piccadilly,  1892. 

"Fielding's  Voyage  to  Lisbon,"  pp.  68-78. 

Idem.   Third   Series.    London:    Chatto  &  Windus,  1896. 

"Fielding's  Library,"  pp.  164-178. 

At    the    Sign    of  the    Lyre.     London:     Kegan    Paul, 

Trench,  Triibner  &  Co.     mdcccxxxv. 

"Henry   Fielding.     (To   James  Russell   Lowell),"   pp.    107-110. 


BIOGRAPHIES  117 

DoBSON,  Austin.  "Henry  Fielding:"  in  Bibliographia,Wo\.  I. 
London:    Kegan   Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  and    Company,  Limited, 

1895.     Part  II,  pp.  163-173. 

This  is  the  essay  on  Fielding's  Library  afterward  incorporated  in  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury Vignettes:  Third  Series,  1896,  pp.  164-178. 

English   Men  of  Letters:     Samuel    Richardson.     New 

York:     The   Macmillan  Company.     London:     Macmillan    &   Co., 

Ltd.,  1902. 

Fielding,  pp.  32,  37,  42-47,  96,  106-113,  116-119,  121,  122,  145,  146,  157,  162, 
195,  200. 

William  Hogarth.     London:  Sampson  Low,  Marston, 

and  Company,  Limited,  St.  Dunstan's  House,  Fetter  Lane,  Fleet 
Street,  E.  C,  1891. 

Fielding,  pp.  47  n.,  62, 63,  71  n.,  72  n.,  81,  1 15, 1 16, 123, 1 50  n.,  176,  285. 

Horace  Walpole,  a  Memoir.     New  York:   Dodd,  Mead 

and  Company,  1890. 

Idem.     London:  James  R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  1893. 

Fielding,  pp.  79, 86, 161-163, 231,  284. 

Handbook  of  English  Literature;    originally  compiled 

by  Austin  Dobson.  New  Edition,  revised  with  New  Chapters,  and 
extended  to  the  present  time;  by  W.  Hall  Griffin,  B.  A.,  Professor  of 
English  Language  and  Literature  at  Queen's  College.  London: 
Crosby,  Lockwood,  and  Son,  7  Stationers'  Hall  Court,  Ludgate 
Hill,  1897. 

Fielding,  pp.  139-140. 

Fielding  and  Sarah  Andrew;  in  the  Atheneeum,  June  2, 

1883. 

Pp.  700,  701.  Reprinted  in  Henry  Fielding,  by  Austin  Dobson.  New  York: 
Dodd,  Mead  and  Company;  n.  d.  [1900],  pp.  277-285,  and  in  London:  Macmillan  & 
Co.,  1902,  pp.  197-202. 


ii8  HENRY  FIELDING 

DoBSON,  Austin.  Fresh  Facts  about  Fielding;  in  Macmillans 
Magazine,  April,  1907.     Vol.  II,  n.  s.,  pp.  417-422. 

[DowLiNG,  W.]  The  Eton  Portrait  Gallery;  consisting  of  short 
Memoirs  of  the  More  Eminent  Eton  Men;  by  a  Barrister  of  the  Inner 
Temple.  With  Twelve  Steel  Engravings,  designed  and  executed  by 
Cavalier  Gabrielli.  Eton  College:  Williams  and  Son;  London: 
Simpkin,  Marshall  &  Co.,  1876. 

"Henry  Fielding," pp.  539-542. 

Elwin,  Rev.  Whitwell.  Some  XVIII  Century  Men  of  Letters: 
Biographical  Essays  by  the  Rev.  Whitvpell  Elwin,  some  time  Editor 
of  the  Quarterly  Review;  with  a  Memoir,  edited  by  his  son,  Warwick 
Elwin.  Vol.  II :  Sterne  -  Fielding  -  Goldsmith  -  Boswell  and  Dr. 
Johnson  -  Gray.  With  portraits,  etc.  London:  John  Murray, 
Albemarle  Street,  1902. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  83-152.     Portrait  facing  p.  139. 

GossE,  Edmund.  The  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,  with  an  Intro- 
duction by  Edmund  Gosse.  Vol.  I.  Westminster:  Archibald  Con- 
stable and  Co.;  New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1898. 

"Introduction,"  pp.  xiii-xl. 

A    History   of  Eighteenth    Century    Literature    (1660- 

1780);  by  Edmund  Gosse,  M.  A.,  Clark  Lecturer  in  English  Literature 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  London:  Macmillan  and  Co.,  and 
New  York,  1889. 

Fielding,  pp.  243,  244,  247,  251-259,  264,  265,  383,  384, 386. 

English   Literature:    an   Illustrative   Record;    in   four 

volumes.  Vol.  Ill,  from  Milton  to  Johnson;  by  Edmund  Gosse,  Hon. 
M.  A.  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  New  York :  The  Macmillan 
Company;    London:    Macmillan  and  Co.,  Ltd.,  1903. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  311-315.     Eight  illustrations. 


BIOGRAPHIES  119 

Havard,  J.  A.  Tom  Jones,  ou  L'  Enfant  Trouve;  imitation 
de  r  Anglais  de  Fielding,  par  de  la  Place.  Tome  Premier.  Paris: 
A.  Hiard,  Libraire-Editeur  de  la  Bibliotheque  des  Amis  des  Lettres, 
Rue  Saint-Jacques,  No.  131.     1832. 

"Notice  sur  Fielding  et  ses  ouvrages,"  pp.  5-1 8,  signed  "  J.  A.  Havard." 

Henley,  W.  E.,  LL.D.  The  complete  Works  of  Henry  Fielding, 
Esq.;  with  an  essay  on  the  Life,  Genius  and  Achievement  of  the 
author.  Miscellaneous  Writings;  in  three  volumes.  Vol.  HI. 
Illustrated  with  reproductions  of  rare  contemporary  drawings  and 
portraits.  Printed  for  subscribers  only  by  Croscup  &  Sterling  Com- 
pany, New  York  [1902].     In  16  volumes. 

"Henry  Fielding,  1707-1754;"  pp.  iii-xli.  Nothing  more  delightful  has  been 
written  of  Fielding.  Complete  sets  of  the  first  and  second  galley  proofs  and  of  the 
final  page  proofs  corrected  and  signed  by  Mr.  Henley  are  in  the  collection  of  the 
editor  of  this  volume. 

Views  and  Reviews;  Essays  in  Appreciation.     London: 

Published  by  David  Nutt,  in  the  Strand,  l8go. 

Idem.     New  York:    Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  1890. 

Fielding,  pp.  217,  218,  229-235. 

Herbert,  David.  The  Writings  of  Henry  Fielding;  comprising 
his  celebrated  works  of  fiction;  carefully  revised  and  collated  with  the 
best  authorities;  with  a  Memoir  by  David  Herbert,  M.  A.  Edin- 
burgh:  William  P.  Nimmo,  1872. 

Reprinted  1887.     Memoir,  pp.  5-10. 

Jeaffreson,  J.  C.  Novels  and  Novelists,  from  Elizabeth  to 
Victoria.  By  J.  Cordy  Jeaffreson.  Author  of  "Crewe  Rise,"  &c.,  &c. 
In  two  volumes.  Vol.  I.  London:  Hurst  and  Blackett,  Publishers, 
successors  to  Henry  Colburn,  13  Great  Mailborough  Street.     1858. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  91-117. 


120  HENRY  FIELDING 

Jesse,  J.  Heneage.  Memoirs  of  celebrated  Etonians;  including 
Henry  Fielding,  Thomas  Gray,  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  George  Selwyn, 
Home  Tooke,  Lord  North,  Horace  Walpole,  Earl  of  Bute,  George 
Grenville,  Earl  Temple,  etc.  etc.  etc. ;  by  J.  Heneage  Jesse,  author 
o{ Memoirs  of  The  Reign  of  George  III,  The  Court  of  the  Stuarts,  etc. 
In  two  volumes.  Vol.  I.  London:  Richard  Bentley  and  Son,  Pub- 
lishers in  ordinary  to  Her  Majesty.     1875. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  62-88. 

Keightley,  Thomas.  On  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Henry  Field- 
ing. In  Two  Parts.  Part  the  First  [Second]  in  Eraser's  Magazine, 
January,  February,  1858.  Vol.  LVII,  pp.  1-13,  205-217;  also,  Post- 
script to  Mr.  Keightley 's  "Article  on  Henry  Fielding,"  June,  1858. 
Vol.  LVII,  pp.  762,  763. 

Never  reprinted  until  issued  in  this  volume  by  the  Rowfant  Club. 

Lawrence,  F.  The  Life  of  Henry  Fielding;  with  notices  of  his 
Writings,  his  Times,  and  his  Contemporaries.  By  Frederick  Law- 
rence, of  the  Middle  Temple,  Barrister-at-Law.  -  Mores  hominum 
multorum  vidit.  -  Horace,  De  Arte  Poetica.  -  London :  Arthur  Hall, 
Virtue  &  Co.,  25,  Paternoster  Row.     1855. 

Pp.  viii,  384. 

Lowell,  J.  R.  Democracy  and  other  Addresses.  Boston  and 
New  York:  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company;  The  Riverside  Press, 
Cambridge.     1887. 

Idem.     London:  Macmillan  and  Company.     1887. 

Fielding — Address  on  Unveiling  the  Bust  of  Fielding,  delivered  at  Shire  Hall, 
Taunton,  Somersetshire,  England,  September  4,  1 883.  Pp.  65-88. 

McSpadden,  J.  W.  Standard  Authors'  Booklets:  Henry  Field- 
ing. Illustrated.  New  York:  Croscup  &  Sterling  Company,  Pub- 
lishers, N.  D.  [1902]. 

Pp.  32.    Portrait  and  7  illustrations. 


BIOGRAPHIES  121 

MuDFORD,  William.  The  British  NoveHsts;  comprising  every 
work  of  acknowledged  merit  which  is  usually  classed  under  the  denom- 
ination of  Novels:  accompanied  with  Biographical  Sketches  of  the 
Authors,  and  a  critical  preface  to  each  Work.  Embellished  with  ele- 
gant engravings.  Vol.  IV.  Containing  Tom  Jones  and  Jonathan 
Wild  the  Great.  London :  Published  for  the  proprietors  by  W.  Clark, 
New  Bond  Street;  Goddard,  Pall-Mali;  Taylor  and  Hessey,  Fleet 
Street;  J.  M.  Richardson,  Cornhill;  and  Sherwood,  Neely,  and  Jones, 
Paternoster  Row.     1 8 1 1 . 

"Life  of  Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  3-10. 

Murphy,  Arthur.  An  Essay  on  the  Life  and  Genius  of  Henry 
Fielding,  Esq.  Signed  "Arthur  Murphy,  Lincoln's  Inn,  March  25, 
1762:"  in  The  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.;  with  the  Life  of  the 
Author.  In  four  volumes.  Volume  the  First.  London :  Printed  for 
A.  Millar,  opposite  Catharine-Street,  in  the  Strand,     m.d.cc.lxii. 

Pp.  5-49. 

This,  the  first  attempt  at  a  biography  of  Henry  Fielding,  was  prepared  for  this, 
the  first  edition  of  his  collected  works.  It  has  been  many  times  reprinted  in  whole  or 
in  part  in  various  succeeding  editions  of  the  works.  Hogarth's  portrait  of  Fielding 
was  engraved  by  Basire  for  the  first  edition. 

Nichols,  John.  Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  Eighteenth  Century; 
comprising  biographical  memoirs  of  William  Bower,  Printer,  F.  S.  A., 
and  many  of  his  learned  Friends;  An  Incidental  View  of  the  Progress 
and  Advancement  of  Literature  in  this  Kingdom  during  the  last  Cen- 
tury; and  Biographical  Anecdotes  of  a  Considerable  Number  of  Emi- 
nent Writers  and  Ingenious  Artists;  with  a  very  copious  Index.  In 
six  volumes.  Vol.  III.  London:  Printed  for  the  author,  by  Nichols, 
Son,  and  Bentley,  at  Cicero's  Head,  Red-Lion-Passage,  Fleet-Street. 
1812. 

"No.  iv,  Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  356-385.  Portrait,  from  a  miniature  in  the  pos- 
session of  his  granddaughter,  Miss  Sophia  Fielding,  engraved  by  Roberts.  Other  ref- 
erences to  Fielding:  Vol.  H,  pp.  170,  728.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  717.  Vol.  V,  p.  251.  Vol. 
VI,  pp.  421,  441 .     Vol.  VIII,  pp.  197,  446,  496,  525,  526.     Vol.  IX,  p.  622. 


122  HENRY  FIELDING 

RoscoE,  Thomas.  The  History  of  Tom  Jones,  a  Foundling; 
by  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.;  with  a  Memoir  of  the  Author,  by  Thomas 
Roscoe,  Esq.,  and  illustrations  by  George  Cruikshank.  In  two  vol- 
umes. Vol.  I.  London:  James  Cochrane  and  Co.,  ii  Waterloo 
Place,  Pall  Mall;  and  J.  Andrews,  167  New  Bond  Street.     1831. 

"Memoirof  the  Author,"  pp.  vii-xix.  Many  times  reprinted.  Merely  an  abridg- 
ment of  Murphy's  Essay. 

Saintsbury,  George.  The  Adventures  of  Joseph  Andrews  and 
his  friend  Mr.  Abraham  Adams;  by  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.  Vol.  I. 
Edited  by  George  Saintsbury;  with  illustrations  by  Herbert  Railton 
&  E.J.  Wheeler.  London:  Published  by  J.  M.  Dent  &  Co.  at 
Aldine  House  in  Great  Eastern  Street,  mdcccxciii. 

General  Introduction,  pp.  xi-rxxvi.  Contains  portrait  after  the  Taunton  bust. 
An  admirable  piece  of  work. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter.  The  Novels  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.,  viz: 
I.  Joseph  Andrews,  2.  Tom  Jones,  3.  Amelia,  and  4,  Jonathan 
Wild;  complete  in  one  volume.  To  which  is  Prefixed,  a  Memoir  of 
the  Life  of  the  Author.  London :  Published  by  Hurst,  Robinson  and 
Co.,  90,  Cheapside.  Printed  by  James  Ballantyne  and  Company,  at 
the  Border  Press:  For  John  Ballantyne,  Edinburgh.     1821. 

"Prefatory  Memoir  to  Fielding,"  pp.  i-xxiv.  Dated  "Abbotsford,  October  25, 
1820." 

Lives  of  the  Novelists.     Vol.  L     Paris:    Published  by 

A.  and  W.  Galignani,  at  the  English,  French,  Italian,  German  and 
Spanish  Library,  18  Rue  Vivienne.     1825. 

Fielding,  pp.  1-45- 


Miscellaneous  Prose  Works.    In  six  volumes.     Vol.  III. 

Biographical  Memoirs.     Edinburgh :     Printed   for  Cadell   and   Co., 


BIOGRAPHIES  123 

Edinburgh;  and  Longman,  Rees,  Orme,  Brown,  and  Green,  London. 

1827. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  43,44,  76,  77,78,89-130, 142, 184, 190-203. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter.  Tom  Jones,  ou  1'  Enfant  Trouve.  Tome 
Premier.  A  Paris:  chez  Dauthereau,  Libraire,  Rue  de  Richelieu, 
No.  20.     1828. 

"Notice  Biographique  et  Litteraire  sur  Henry  Fielding  par  Sir  Walter  Scott," 
pp.  1-48. 

Biographical    Memoirs  of  English  Novelists,  and  other 

Distinguished  Persons.  Vol.  L  Robert  Cadell,  Edinburgh;  Whit- 
aker  and  Co.,  London.     1834. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  77-116. 

Tom  Jones;   Histoire  d'  un  Enfant  Trouve,   traduction 

nouvelle,  par  Defaucoupret,  precedee  d'  un  Notice  Biographique  et 
Litteraire  sur  Fielding,  par  Walter  Scott.  Tome  L  Paris :  Fume, 
Libraire-Editeur,  Quai  des  Augustins,  No.  39.     mdcccxxxv. 

"Notice  Biographique  et  Litteraire  sur  Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  i-xxiv. 

Tom  Jones;  ou  1' Enfant  Trouve,  par  Fielding;  traduc- 
tion nouvelle  par  M.  Leon  de  Wailly;  precedee  d'  une  notice  sur 
Fielding,  par  Sir  Walter  Scott.  Tome  Premier.  Paris,  Charpentier, 
Libraire-Editeur,  29  Rue  de  Seine.     1841. 

"Vie  de  Henri  Fielding,  par  Sir  Walter  Scott,"  pp.  1-21 . 

Smith,  George  Barnett.  Our  First  Great  Novelist;  in  Macmtl- 
lan's  Magazine,  May,  1874.     Vol.  XXX,  pp.  I-18. 

Poets  and  Novelists:  a  series  of  Literary  Studies.  Lon- 
don: Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  15  Waterloo  Place.     1875. 

Idem.      New  York:    D.  Appleton    &  Co.,  Broadway. 

1876. 

Fielding,  pp.  251-306. 


124  HENRY  FIELDING 

Staffer,  Paul.  Le  Grand  Classique  du  Roman  Anglais:  Henry 
Fielding;  in  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  September  15,  1890.  Vol.  CI, 
pp.  412-454. 

Stephen,  Leslie.  Hours  in  a  Library.  Third  Series.  London: 
Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  15  Waterloo  Place.     1879. 

Fielding's  Novels,  pp.  50-92. 

Hours  in  a  Library.     XIV:    Fielding's  Novels:    in  The 

Cornhill  Magazine,  February,  1 877.     Vol.  XXXV,  pp.  1 54-1 71. 

The  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.;     edited  with  a 

Biographical   Essay  by  Leslie  Stephen.     In  Ten  Volumes.     Vol.   I. 
London:  Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  15  Waterloo  Place.     1882. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  i-civ.     A  valuable  contribution. 

[ToWNSEND,  Geo.  H.]  The  History  of  Tom  Jones,  a  Foundling; 
by  Henry  Fielding.  With  Illustrations,  and  a  Memoir  of  the  Author. 
London:  G.  Routledge  &  Co.,  Farringdon  Street;  New  York:  18 
Beekman  Street.     1857. 

"The  Life  and  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  iii-xvi.  Signed  "G.  H.  T.  January 
30,  1857." 

Idem.     London:    George  Routledge  &  Sons,  Limited, 

Broadway  House,  Ludgate  Hill,  E.  C.     N.  D. 

"The  Life  and  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  v-xviii.     Signed  "G.  H.  T." 

Idem.     Vol.  I.     London:    George  Routledge  &   Sons, 

Broadway,  Ludgate  Hill;  New  York:  9  Lafayette  Place.     1884. 

"The  Life  and  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  v-xiv,  unsigned.  This  is  one  of 
the  limited  editions  common  these  days.  It  was  reprinted  from  the  same  type  in  1886 
on  thinner  and  smaller  paper,  but  with  illustrations  by  Phiz  added.  It  has  since  been 
reprinted  without  date. 

Taine,  H.  a.  History  of  English  Literature;  translated  by  H. 
Van  Laun,  one  of  the  masters  at  the  Edinburgh  Academy:  with  a 
Preface  by  the  Author.  Vol.  II.  Edinburgh:  Edmonston  and 
Douglas.     1871. 

Fielding,  pp.  170-176. 


BIOGRAPHIES  125 

Taine,    H.    a.      History    of    English    Literature.      Edinburgh: 
Edmonston  and  Douglas.     1874. 
Fielding,  Vol.  II,  pp.  289-300. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.  Fielding's  Works  in  one  volume;  with  a 
Memoir  by  Thomas  Roscoe:  in  the  Times,  (London),  September  2, 
1840;   fol.  6,  cols.  1-3. 

Extract  in  Timbs,  J.,  "Anecdote  Lives  of  the  Later  Wits  and  Humorists."  Lon- 
don: 1874.  Vol.  II,  pp.  281-287.  Reprinted  in  iS/ra)?  Pa/)erj  by  William  Makepeace 
Thackeray.  Edited  with  an  Introduction  and  Notes  by  Louis  Melville.  London: 
Hutchinson  and  Co.,  Paternoster  Row,  1901.  Pp.  103-112.  Critical  Papers  in 
Literature,  by  William  Makepeace  Thackeray.  London:  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1904. 
Pp.  202-210.  The  Complete  Works  of  William  Makepeace  Thackeray,  with  In- 
troductions by  William  P.  Trent  and  John  Bell  Henneman.  Literary  Essays.  New 
York:     Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co.,  Publishers    [1904].     Pp.  231-242. 

The  English  Humorists  of  the  Eighteenth  Century:     a 

series  of  Lectures,  delivered  in  England,  Scotland,  and  the  United 
States  of  America;  by  W.  M.  Thackeray,  author  of  "Esmond," 
"Pendennis,"  "Vanity  Fair,"    &c.     London:  Smith,    Elder   &  Co. 

65Cornhill.     1853. 

Lecture  the  Fifth:  Hogarth,  Smollett,  and  Fielding,  pp.  219-268.  Fielding,  pp. 
251-268.     This  lecture  was  first  delivered  at  Willis's  Rooms,  London,  June  26,  1851. 

Idem.     Nev7  York:    Harper  and  Brothers.     1853. 

Contains  "Charity  and  Humour,"  for  the  first  time  reprinted. 

Idem.  Leipzig:     Tauchnitz.     1853. 

Idem.  Second  Edition:     Revised.     London:    1853. 

Idem.  Third   Edition.     London:     1858. 

Idem.  Nevp  York:     Harper  and  Brothers.     1858. 

Idem.  London:     1866. 

Idem.  London:     1867. 


126  HENRY  FIELDING 

Thackeray,  W.  M.  The  English  Humorists  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century.     New  York:     1867. 

Idem.     London:     1869. 

With  the  Four  Georges,  being  Vol.  XIX  of  the  works. 

Idem.     New  York:     Harper  and  Brothers.     [1879]. 

Idem.     Edited    by    Ernest    Kegel.      Halle:     Niemeyer. 

I 885-1 890. 

Idem.     Chicago:     A.  C.  McClurg  &  Co.     1893. 

Idem.      Edited  with  an  introduction  and  explanatory 

and  critical  Notes  by  William  Lyon  Phelps.  New  York :  Henry  Holt 
and  Company.     1900. 

"Hogarth,  Smollett,  and  Fielding,"  pp.  203-247.  Fielding,  pp.206,  211,  213, 
231-247,  332,  335,  337-341.     An  admirable  piece  of  work. 

The  Paris  Sketch  Book:  by  Mr.  Titmarsh.  With  nu- 
merous designs  by  the  author,  on  copper  and  wood.  Vol.  I.  [II]. 
London:  John  Macrone,  i  St.  Martin's  Place,  Trafalgar  Square. 
1840. 

Fielding,  Vol.  I,  p.  173,  "On  Some  French  Fashionable  Novels."  Vol.  II,  pp. 
29-3 3 .     "  Caricature  and  Lithography  in  Paris." 

The  History  of  Pendennis:  his  Fortunes  and  Misfor- 
tunes; his  Friends  and  his  Greatest  Enemy.  With  illustrations  on 
wood  by  the  author.  Vol.1.  [II].  London:  Bradbury  and  Evans, 
II  Bouverie  Street.     1849.  [1850]. 

Fielding,  Vol.  I,  p.  290.  Chapter  xxx.  (Chapter  xxix  of  subsequent  editions  as  a 
full  chapter  was  cut  out).     Vol.  II,  p.  vii  (Preface). 

The  Virginians :  a  tale  of  the  Last  Century.     By  W.  M. 

Thackeray,  author  of  "Esmond,"  "Vanity  Fair,"  "The  Newcomes," 
&c.  &c.  With  illustrations  on  steel  and  wood  by  the  author.  Vol.  I. 
[II].     London:    Bradbury  &  Evans,  11  Bouverie  Street.     1858.  [1859]. 

Fielding,  Vol.  I,  pp.  175  (Ch.  xxii),  206,  207  (Ch.  xxvi),  219  (Ch.  xxriii), 
254  (Ch.  xxxii),  322  (Ch.  xli).     Vol.  II,  pp.  113  (Ch.  xiv),  180  (Ch.  xxii). 


BIOGRAPHIES  127 

Thackeray,  W.  M.  Thackerayana :  Notes  and  Anecdotes,  illus- 
trated by  nearly  six  hundred  sketches,  by  William  Makepeace  Thack- 
eray; depicting  humorous  incidents  in  his  school  life,  and  favourite 
scenes  and  characters  in  the  books  of  his  every-day  reading.  London : 
Chatto  and  Windus,  Piccadilly.     1875. 

Fielding,  pp.  77-80,  127-129,  containing  six  sketches  of  Joseph  Andrews,  and 
extracts  from  "The  Paris  Sketch  Book." 

A  Collection  of  Letters  of  Thackeray,  1847-1855;  with 

portrait   and    reproductions   of  letters   and    drawings.     New  York: 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,     mdccclxxxvii. 

Fielding,  pp.  125,  126.     From  Scribner's  Magazine,  July,  1887.  Vol.  II,  pp.  30,  31. 

Idem.     New  York:     Charles  Scribner's  Sons.     1888. 

Fielding,  p.  164. 

Trumble,  Alfred.  (Illustrated  Sterling  Edition).  The  History 
of  the  Life  of  the  Late  Mr.  Jonathan  Wild  the  Great;  by  Henry 
Fielding.  A  sketch  of  the  life  of  Henry  Fielding,  by  Alfred  Trumble. 
Boston:     Dana  Estes  &  Company,  Publishers.     [1904]. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  i-xliv.  Signed  ".\lfred  Trumble;  New  York,  August, 
1889."  This  edition  was  published  in  New  York  as  a  subscription  enterprise  about 
1889.  The  Boston  publishers  afterwards  bought  the  plates  and  re-issued  it  without 
date.     The  Biography  is  an  excellent  piece  of  work. 

Watson,  William.  The  Life  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.  With 
Observations  on  his  Character  and  Writings.  Edinburgh:  Printed 
for  Mundell,  Doig  &  Stevenson;  and  J.  Murray,  and  T.  Ostell, 
London.     1807. 

Pp.  iv,  176.  Prepared  for  the  Select  Works  described  below,  and  a  few  copies 
published  separately. 

Select  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.:    containing  the 

Adventures  of  Joseph  Andrews,  the  History  of  Tom  Jones,  Amelia, 
and    the    History  of   Jonathan   Wild;     to    which    is    prefixed:   an 


128  HENRY  FIELDING 

Original  Account  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  the  Author.  In  Five 
Volumes.  Vol.  I.  Edinburgh :  Printed  for  Mundell,  Doig  &  Stev- 
enson;  and  J.  Murray,  and  T.  Ostell,  London.     1807. 

"The  Life  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq."  i  prel.  leaf,  pp.  7-176.  There  is  an  error 
in  the  paging,  skipping  from  p.  72  to  p.  81. 

Watson,  William.  Select  Works  of  Henry  Fielding.  Second 
Edition.  Edinburgh:  Printed  for  Peter  Hill,  S.  Doig,  and  A.  Ster- 
ling; and  John  Ballantyne  and  Co.,  Edinburgh:  Lackington,  Allen, 
and  Co.,  Sherwood,  Neely,  and  Jones,  R.  Scholey,  and  Cradock  and 
Joy,  London;   and  M.  Keene,  Dublin.     1812. 

"The  Life  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.,"  pp.  3-176.     Same  error  in  paging. 

Idem.     Third  Edition.     Edinburgh:     1818. 

"The  Life  of  Henry  Fielding,  Esq.,"  I  prel.  leaf,  p.  168.  The  error  noted  above 
corrected,  but  p.  167  paged  as  17  and  p.  168  as  158. 

Watt,  Robert.  Bibliotheca  Brittanica;  or  A  General  Index  to 
British  and  Foreign  Literature.  In  tV70  parts :  Authors  and  Subjects. 
Vol.  I.:  Authors.  Edinburgh:  Printed  for  Archibald  Constable 
and  Company,  Edinburgh;  and  Longman,  Hurst,  Orme,  Brov?n,  & 
Green;  and  Hurst,  Robinson,  &  Co.,  London.     1824. 

Fielding,  pp.  366,  o,  366,  s.     A  mere  list  of  Fielding's  works. 

Whipple,  E.  P.  The  Life  and  Works  of  Henry  Fielding:  in 
North  American  Review,  January,  1849.     Vol.  LXVIII,  pp.  41-81. 

Essays  and  Revievps.     Boston:     1850. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  303-357,  406. 

Idem.     In    Tvs^o  Volumes.     Vol.  II.     Boston  and  New 

York:  Houghton,  Mifflin,  and  Company;  The  Riverside  Press, 
Cambridge.     1889. 

"Henry  Fielding,"  pp.  303-357,  406. 


APPENDIX  B 


THE  FIRST  EDITION  OF  '*TOM 
JONES"  AND  THE  SEC- 
OND COMPARED 


THE 

HISTORY 

O  F 

TOM  JGNES, 

A 

FOUNDLING. 

In     SIX     VOLUMES. 


By  HENRY  FIELDING,  Efqj 


'Mores  homnum  muUorum  vidii.- 


LONDON: 

Printed  for  A.  Millar,  over  -  againft 

Catharine-Jireet  in  the  Sirand» 

Mdccxlix* 


Title-page  of   "Tom  Jones" 

the  first  issue  of  the  six -volume  edition 
(the  genuine  first  ejitioji) 


Title-page  of   "Tom  Jones" 
the  secotui  issue  of  the  six- volume  edition 


THE 

HISTORY 

O  F 

TOM  JONES, 

A 

FOUNDLING. 


In 

S  I  X     V 

O  L  U  M  E 

S. 

By 

HENRY 

FIELDING, 

Efq; 

— 

—iMores  hominum  muUorum  vidit— 

LONDON: 

Printed  for  A.  Millar,  over- againfl 

Catbarine-Jireet  in  the  Strand, 

Mdccxlix. 


The  Reader  is  defired  to  correct  the  following 
ERRATA. 

VOL.  I.  Page  ii,  line  25.  for  ivas  read  iiad.  p.  52,  I.  18, 
dele  th.::.  p.  57,  1.  12.  fur  Military  read  Militant,  p.  60,  I. 
6.  (or  this  read  it.  p.  68,  1.  14.  read  ivltac  it.  p.  99, 1.  12,  for 
icre  leid  l>orne.  p.  151,].  lo.  (ox  feventeen  read  nineteen,  p. 
109,  1.  15.  iot  he  could  rezi  could.  »  ■ 

VOL.    n.     Page  29,  1.   14.  read  twenty,  p.  86,  L  13.  read 

whipped  at.  p.  195,  1.  24.  dele  ow.  p.  230,  J.  21.  for /£>?/>  read 
they.  p.  273,  1.  16.  for  bore  read  icine.  p.  289,1.4.  {vr  fVratb 
read  ly/c.vi.  p.  306,  1.  22.  for  fuffercd  tend  induced. 

VOL.  IIL  Page  19,  1.  10.  dele  r^fo^jr.  p.  27, 1.  28.  read  as  be 
reuer  concealed  tbii  Hatred,  p.  40,  1.  10.  for  Jalisfiedrtid  con- 
'iiinccd.  p,  57,  1.26.  Te?.d  prejeri'es  and  refunes.  p.  134,  J.  2. 
dele  thjt.  1.  9.  df le /;.  p.  238.  1.  laft,  for  prcjiiiutc  leid  pro-' 
f-lgatt.  p.  274,  1.  21.  forthije  read  firy.  p.  277,  1.  21.  read 
Ajfronts,  p.  294, 1.  16.  read  Louage.  p.  307,  1.  8.  dele  Dcomf- 
day  Book,  or.  p.  330,  1.  14.  read  came.  p.  348.  I.  12.  put  a 
Comma  only  after  charming, 

VOL.  IV.  Page  35,  1.  i.  read  pricked  tip.  p.  90,  L  20.  read 
they  are  cffeBcd,  1.  25.  de\e  juch.  p.  91,  1.  3.  for  Cajh  read 
Gf'/i/.  p.  no,  1.  12.  for  our  read  e/(^.  p.  in,  1.  22.  for  iihicb 
read  a«^.  p.  120, 1. 1,  dele  Comma  afternot.  p.  122, 1.  8.  dele 
by.  p.  169,  1.  27.  read  think  tt  material.  1.  28.  d  ele  fo.  p. 
179,  1,  3.  for  iti  read  j6fr.  p.  185,  L  14.  read  the  Irutb,  of 
tlis  Degree  of  Sufpicion  Ibelievf.  ].  23.  for  ivho  rcT^diuhicb, 
p.  193,  1.  II.  for  Crime  read  Shame,  p.  212,  1.  16.  for  nor 
read  and.  p.  231,  1.  13.  for  by  read  for.  p.  235,  1.  20.  fcr 
r//^;;  read  raifed.  p,  270,  1.  9,  read  Lalagen.  p.  294,  1.  13.  for 
alternative  read  Alteration, 

VOL.  V.  Page  66.  1,  20.  for  Cannijler  read  Miller,  p.  113,  J. 
X.  rtidCharcden.  p.  172,  1.  6.  read  f^/y?/'»g-.  p.  181,  1.  6.  for 
in  read  on,  p.  182,  1.  II.  read  bringing  her  into.  p.  223,  J.  12. 
delewr.  p.  249,  1.  25.  read  fat.  p.  251,  1.  27.  rtid  two  or 
three,  p.  263, 1.  20.  read  Lady.  p.  272,].  12.  dele  rAi?r.  p.  274, 
J.  10.  dele  as.  p.  282,  1.  11.  iox  for  read  o».  1,  z^.  read  fo'tr, 
p.  283.  1.  9.  read  ;'«  bis  Way, 


CONTENTS  of  Vol.  VI.    Ixiu 

CHAP.    XI. 

I'he  Hijlory  draws  nearer  to  a  Conclufton. 

p.  267. 

CHAR     XII. 

Jpfroaching  ftill  nearer  to  the  End.    p.  280. 

CHAP.     The  laft. 
In  which  the  Hijlory  is  concluded,       p.  293. 


THE 


THE  FIRST  EDITION  OF  -TOM  JONES"  AND 
THE  SECOND  COMPARED 

On  February  28,  1749,  the  following  advertisement  appeared  in 
the  General  Advertiser: 


This  day  is  published,  in  six  vols.,  i2mo., 
THE   HISTORY   OF   TOM   JONES, 

A    FOUNDLING. 

—  Mores  hominum  multorum  vidit. — 

By    Henry    Fielding,    Esq. 

It  being  impossible  to  get  sets  bound  fast  enough  to  answer  the 

demand  for  them,  such  Gentlemen  and  Ladies  as  please  may  have 

them  sewed  in  Blue  Paper  and  Boards,  at  the  price  of  16  s.  a  set,  of 

A.  Millar,  over-against  Catharine-Street,  in  the  Strand. 

Later  in  the  same  year  an  edition  was  published  in  four  volumes 
and  this  is  generally  referred  to  as  the  "second  edition,"  it  not  bemg 
known  apparently  to  any  of  Fielding's  biographers  that  there  were 
two  editions  in  six  volumes  bearing  the  date  1749,  and  that  the  first 
edition  was  practically  exhausted  by  the  time  the  sixth  volume  went  to 
press.  No  distinction  between  these  two  editions  has  been  made  by 
the  bibliographers  or  booksellers,  except  that  in  some  cases  the  an- 
nouncement is  made  that  a  particular  copy  is  "with  the  leaf  of  errata, 
usually  wanting."     I  have  records  of  the  sale  of  nine  copies  with  the 


132  HENRY  FIELDING 

leaf  of  errata  and  of  fifty  copies  claiming  to  be  first  editions  but  with- 
out mentioning  the  errata  leaf.  In  the  first  edition  the  errata  leaf 
follows  the  Table  of  Contents  in  the  first  volume  and  is  unpaged,  but 
occupies  what  would  be  page  Ixiii.  In  the  second  edition  the  errata 
are  corrected,  the  page  suppressed,  and  the  Table  of  Contents  spread 
out  so  as  to  occupy  a  portion  of  page  Ixiii,  in  this  case  numbered,  thus 
giving  both  editions  the  same  number  of  pages. 

There  is  evidence  also  that  not  a  little  care  was  taken  to  make  the 
pages  of  the  second  impression  conform  exactly  to  the  first,  but  owing 
to  carelessness  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  compositors  this  was  not 
very  successfully  accomplished  and  many  hundreds  of  variations  have 
been  noted.  The  errata,  moreover,  are  confined  to  the  first  five 
volumes,  making  it  clear,  it  seems  to  me,  that  this  second  edition  was 
begun  about  the  time  the  sixth  volume  went  to  press. 

I  propose  to  point  out  here  only  the  more  prominent  variations 
between  those  two  editions,  enough  only  to  prove  that  there  were  two, 
and  to  make  it  possible  to  ascertain  at  a  glance  to  which  edition  any 
volume  of  the  six  belongs,  as  the  presence  of  the  leaf  of  errata  in  any 
set  can  only  go  to  prove  that  the  first  volume  is  of  the  first  edition. 

VOL.  I 

PAGE  LINE  FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

xxxviii     Has  "Chap."  at  foot  of  page Has  "Book"  at  foot  of 

page. 

1     Has  no  word  at  foot  of  page Has  "Chap."  at  foot  of 

page. 

Ixiii     Not  paged.   Contains  Errata  Vols.  I-V .  . .     Paged.  Has  Chaps.  XI, 

Xn,  and  The  Last. 

II  25         "Nature  was  always" "Nature  had  always" 

15     Has  29  lines Has  28  lines. 

17     Begins  with  Chapter  IV Chapter  IV  begins  on 

page  16. 
38      Has  30  lines Has  29  lines. 


PAGE 

LINE 

39 

42 

5^ 

18 

57 

12 

60 

6 

68 

14 

99 

12 

151 

10 

209 

IS 

210 

7 

214 

EDITIONS  OF  "TOM  JONES"         133 

FIRST   EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

Has  28  lines Has  27  lines. 

Has  26  lines Has  27  lines. 

"for  that  Persons" "for,  Persons  " 

"Church  Military," "Church  Militant," 

"to  discover  this" "to  discover  it  " 

"What  almost  distracts  " "what    it    almost    dis- 
tracts " 

"justly  bore  the  " "justly  borne  the  " 

"Age  of  Seventeen  " "^5«  "f  Nineteen" 

"he  could  by  no  Means  " "could  by  no  Means  " 

"The  Higler  " "The  Highler  " 

214     Hare  in  vignette Woman's   face    in  vig- 
nette. 
VOL.  II 

PAGE  LINE  FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

3      Word  at  foot  of  page  "by" Word  at  foot  of  page 

"tised." 

29         14         "Nineteen," "Twenty," 

86         13         "Whipped" "Whipped  at  " 

94     Word  at  foot  of  page  "frw," Word  at  foot  of   page 

''''Western." 

102     Has  29  lines Has  30  lines. 

103      Has  29  lines Has  28  lines. 

108      Has  28  lines Has  22  lines. 

195  24  "recollecting  on  Mr." "recollecting  Mr." 

230  21  "these  had  never" "they  had  never  " 

273  16  "formerly  bore" "formerly  borne  " 

289  4  "waxeth  Wrath" "waxeth  Wroth  " 

306  22  "could  have  suffered" "could  have  induced  " 

323      "enjoy"  below  note  at  foot  of  page "enjoy"  above  note. 


Has  28  lines. 


324     Has  30  lines 

VOL.  Ill 

PAGE         LINE  FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

I      Word  at  foot  of  page,  "Representations".     Word  at  foot  of  page, 

"Repre-" 


134  HENRY  FIELDING 


PAGE 

LINE 

'9 

10 

27 

28 

40 

10 

57 

26 

134 

2 

134 

9 

149 

171 

233 

238 

last 

274 

21 

277 

21 

FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

"that  the  Princess  herself" "The  Princess  herself' 

"and  this  Hatred  as  he  never  concealed",      "and  as  he  never  con- 
cealed this  Hatred  " 

"he  was  satisfied" "he  was  convinced  " 

"preserve  and  require" "preserves       and      re- 
quires " 

"that  she  should" "she  should." 

"but  so  far  from  being" "but  far  from  being  " 

"Vol.  HI.  *3  And  "  at  foot  of  page "And"  only  at  foot  of 

page. 

"man"  at  foot  of  page "Woman"   at  foot    of 

page. 

233      "Vol.  in  nary"  at  foot  of  page "M3  dinary"  at  foot  of 

page. 

"prostitute  a  Life," "profligate  a  Life  " 

"for  those  impart  " "for  they  impart  " 

"Affront  and  Contempt" "Affronts     and     Con- 
tempt." 

292         27  ^^Laquais  a  Louange  "" ""Laquah  a  Louage  " 

[In  the  Errata  this  is  referred  to  as  page  294  line  i6.j 

307  8         "than  Doomsday  Book,  or  the  vast" "than  the  vast  " 

330  14  ["read  came"  says  "Errata."  The  V7ord  is  printed  "came  "  in  all 
copies  I  have  seen  before  the  four  volume  edition  of  1749,  ^^  which 
the  word  is  changed  to  "come."] 

348  12         "Arts  of  charming.     Say," "Arts     of     charming, 

say," 

349      "Vol.  III."  at  foot  of  page "Vol.   II."  at   foot   of 

page. 
370     cut  I  f  inches  wide cut  i  ^  inches  wide. 


VOL.  IV 

PAGE      LINE  FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

Title    Lines  both  project  beyond  the  "B"  of  "By"    The  "B"  of  "By" 

projects  beyond  lines . 
1      4  lines  of  text 7  lines  of  text. 


EDITIONS  OF  "TOM  JONES"         135 

PAGE         LINE  FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

5     Note  at  foot  of  page This  note  is  at  the  foot 

of  page  4. 

6     Contains  21  lines Contains  14  lines. 

35  I         "pricked  her  Ears" "pricked  up  her  Ears" 

67-69     Double  quotation  marks  used Single  quotation  marks 

used. 
90         20         "this  is  effected," "they  are  effected," 

90  25         "propose  such  a  reward" "propose  a  reward." 

91  3  "JF/;o  Steals  My  Cash^^ "W^/jo  steaJs  my  Gold.'''' 

no  12  "Our  £«^/(2n</ forever!" "Old  £«^/flra^ forever!" 

Ill  22  "which  had  preceeded" "and  had  preceeded  " 

120  I  "and  I  know  not,  but" "and  know  not  but  " 

122  8  "but  by  that  of" "but  that  of  " 

143      Has  24  lines Has  25  lines. 

144     Has  29  lines Has  28  lines. 

169         27         "did  not  think  material" "did  not  think  it  ma- 
terial " 

169         28         "so  we  would  not" "we  would  not  " 

179  3         "attends  its  benignant  " "attends     her     benig- 

nant " 
185         14         "And  to  confess  the  Truth  of  this  Degree  of     "And  to  confess  the 

Suspicion,  I" Truth,  of  this  Degree 

of  Suspicion  I  " 

185         23         "poor  Hare,  who" "poor  Hare,  which" 

193  11  ["for  Crime  read  Shame"  is  the  direction  in  "Errata"  but  the 
change  was  not  made  in  any  copy  of  the  second  edition  I  have  seen. 
The  change  was  made  in  the  4  vol.  edition,  1749,  ^°'-  ^■'■I>  P-  '33> 
lines  20,  21.] 

"nor  know  nothing" "and  know  nothing  " 

"made  amends  by" "made  amends  for" 

''^ Grace  had  risen  " ''''Grace  had  raised  " 

'''' Lalagem''^ ^''Lalagen  " 

"Alternative" "Alteration  " 

VOL.  V 

FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

"'Catharine-Street'''' ''" Catharine-Stueet  " 


212 

16 

231 

13 

^35 

20 

270 

9 

294 

13 

PAGE 

LIN] 

Title 

12 

136 


HENRY  FIELDING 


PAGE        LINE  FIRST    EDITION 

24     Has  28  lines 

24  4  Has  quotation  mark  before  "answered." 

24  7  Has  no  quotation  mark  after  "Madam" 

24  17  Has  quotation  mark  before  "■/''//zpa/r/c/^. 

25      Has  25  lines 

'Mrs.  Cannister'" 

'humourous  Character'" 


66 

20 

113 

I 

172 

6 

181 

6 

182 

II 

223 
249 
263 

272 

274 
282 
282 
283 


25 

27 


25 

9 


existed  in  the  World;"  . .  .  . 

in  the  Affection''' 

bringing  into  your  Family.'" 


for  I  cannot,  nor  will  not  live'' 


not  sit    

two  three  times;'". . . . 
who  the  Lade  was.'".  . 
that  I  would  think  of 
as  she  ascribed".  .  .  . 

for  this  Step'''' 

had  never  yet" 

in  the  Way  of  Jones" 


SECOND    EDITION 

Has  27  lines. 

Has  none. 

Has  quotation  mark. 

Has  none. 

Has  26  lines. 

"Mrs.  Miller." 

"humourous  Charac- 
ters '" 

"  existing  in  the  World ;" 

"on  the  Affection  " 

"bringing  her  into 
your  Family." 

"for  I  cannot  nor  will 
live  " 

"not  sat  " 

"two  or  three  times;" 

"who  the  Lady  was." 

"I  would  think  of  " 

"she  ascribed  " 

"on  this  Step  " 

"had  ever  yet '" 

"in  his  Way,'" 


VOL.  VI 

PAGE  LINE  FIRST    EDITION 

Title             8         Lines  project  to  left  beyond  "By'' 
17     "die.?"  at  foot  of  page 


26     Has  26  lines 

26     "having"  at  foot  of  page. 


27  Has  25  lines. 

46  Has  29  lines. 

49  Has  30  lines. 

59  Has  28  lines. 


SECOND    EDITION 

"By"  projects  beyond 

lines. 
"Cradle.''"  at  foot   of 

page. 
Has  25  lines. 
''''Western,''''  at  foot    of 

page. 
Has  26  lines. 
Has  28  lines. 
Has  29  lines. 
Has  29  lines. 


EDITIONS  OF  "TOM  JONES"  137 

PAGE         LINE  FIRST    EDITION  SECOND    EDITION 

75     Has  29  lines Has  28  lines. 

81      Has  1 1  lines  in  first  t Has  10  lines  in  first  If. 

81      Has  7  lines  in  last  f Has  8  lines  in  last  f. 

106      Wrongly  numbered  "109" Correctly  numbered. 

115      Has  "self  at  foot  of  page Has    "is"    at    foot    of 

page. 

130     Has  28  lines Has  27  lines. 

148      Has  "2"  at  foot  of  page No  "2." 

173      Has  "4"  at  foot  of  page No  "4.'" 

183      Has  "Gen-"  at  foot  of  page Has  "Gentleman,"  at 

foot  of  page. 

247      Has  "such"  at  foot  of  page Has  "you"  at  foot  of 

page. 

286     Has  "rest"  at  foot  of  page Has    "of"    at    foot   of 

page. 

Note. —  In  volume  I,  page  210,  line  7,  the  first  edition  refers  to 
the  man  to  whom  Black  George  sold  the  hare  as  "The  Higler."  In 
the  second  edition  this  is  printed  "  Highler,"  and  the  spelling  is  changed 
back  to  "Higler  "in  the  four  volume  edition  of  1749  (vol.  I,  p.  147,  line 
30).  If  a  third  edition  of  the  six  volume  edition  appeared  this  error 
may  have  been  corrected  in  it.  So  also  in  volume  IV,  p.  193,  line  11, 
the  direction  in  the  "Errata"  is  "for  Crime  read  Shame."  As  noted 
this  change  was  not  made  in  the  second  edition,  but  if  there  was  a 
third  edition  in  six  volumes  it  may  have  been  made  there. 

In  the  list  of  "Errata"  referring  to  volume  III,  page  330,  line  14, 
it  says  "read  came."  This  is  an  error  in  the  "Errata"  list,  and  the 
word  should  have  been  printed  there  "come."  The  change  was  made 
in  the  four  volume  edition  of  1749,  volume  II,  p.  303,  Ime  31.  Here 
again  it  would  be  interesting  to  know  if  the  change  was  made  in  any 
copy  of  the  six  volume  edition. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Addison,  Joseph,  62,  99. 

Address  to  Fame,  Fielding's,  100. 

Advertisement  oiTom  Jones,  131. 

jEneid,  Virgil's,  61. 

Akenside,  Mark,  80. 

Allen,  Ralph,  of  Prior-park,  60,  61,  71,  jy,  as  the  original  of  "All- 
worthy,"  93. 

AUibone,  S.  Austin,  12,  115. 

Allworthy,  Miss  Bridget,  88. 

Allworthy,  Squire,  88;  character  of,  96;  suggested  by  Ralph  Allen 
and  George  Lord  Lyttleton,  92,  93;  discards  Jones,  90,  108;  re- 
covery of,  95;  residence  Sharpham-park,  not  Prior-park,  88,  89; 
suggested  also  by  Hagley-park,  92. 

Amelia,  23,  72,  97,  98,  99;  characters  in,  from  Fielding's  plays,  97, 
98;  Fielding  received  ;^8oo  or  ;^i,ooo  for,  79;  Fielding's  copy  of, 
64;  improbabilities  of,  98;   plot,  89;   published,  "j^. 

Amelia,  character  of,  founded  on  Mrs.  Fielding,  43,  55,  56,  57,  59,  93; 
from  Mrs.  Bellamont  in  The  Modern  Husband,  97,  98;  appearance 
at  the  prison,  98;  residence  in  Salisbury,  34. 

Anachorism  in  Tom  Jones,  89. 

Anachronism  in  Tom  Jones,  8g,  90. 

Andrew,  Sarah,  31,  32,  33. 

Andrew,  Solomon,  31. 

Argyle,  John  Duke  of,  as  the  patron  of  Fielding,  38. 


142  HENRY  FIELDING 

Aristotle,  48. 

Arnold,  Dr.  Thomas,  on  Tom  Jones,  99. 

Ataldide,  Racine's,  94. 

Athenceum,  31. 

Atkinson,  Serjeant,  89,  97. 

Augustus,  a  Tom  Jones  of  the  time  of,  99. 

Austen,  Jane,  author  of  Emma,  89;   her  novels  free  from  errors,  93. 

Austrian  colors,  43. 

Autobiography  of  Shakespeare,  90. 

Avon,  bridges  over  the,  90,  91,  108,  109. 

Barbauld,  Mrs.  Anna  Letitia,  115. 

Barnet,  Herts,  iil. 

Basingstoke,  Hants,  29,  68. 

Basire,  James,  engraved  first  portrait  of  Fielding,  14. 

Bath,  Col.,  in  Amelia,  97. 

Bath, 60, 62, 74, 91;  Mayor  of,  62;  Fielding  at  (1742),  52;  Fielding  and 
Lyttleton  at,  91 ;  Fielding  residing  near  (1744),  60;  Markhand's  lec- 
ture on,  96;   Sarah  Fielding's  monument  in  the  Abbey-church  in,  25. 

Bath  and  Bristol,  bridges  between,  90,  91,  108,  109;  road  from  Lon- 
don to,  109. 

Bathurst,  Lord,  70,  71. 

Bathurst,  Peter,  70. 

Bedford,  Duke  of,  61;   Correspondence  of  John  Duke  of,  69. 

Bedfordshire,  ill. 

Beggar's  Opera,  34,  36. 

Bell  Inn,  Gloucester,  91. 

Bellamont,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  the  suggestion  of  Booth  and  Amelia,  97. 

Bellaston,  Lady,  94;  relations  with  Jones,  95;  possibly  taken  from 
Lady  Townshend,  93. 


INDEX  143 

Bennet,  Mrs.,  in  Amelia,  97. 

Biographica  Britanntca,  105. 

Biographical  Anecdotes  of  William  Hogarth,  13. 

Biographies  of  Fielding,  1 13-128. 

Blifil  and  Tom  Jones,  88. 

Boileau-Despreaux,  Nicolas,  100. 

Book-plate  of  Earl  of  Denbigh,  105. 

Booth,  Lt.,  in  Amelia,  23,  97;  resembles  Fielding,  45,  56,  59;  com- 
pared with  Jones,  97;  suggested  by  Bellamont  in  The  Modern 
Husband,  97. 

Booth,  Mrs.,  Fielding's  first  wife,  43,  55,  56,  57,  59,  93. 

Bridges  over  the  Avon,  90,  91,  108,  109. 

Bristol,  91;  bridges  between  Bristol  and  Bath,  90,  91,  108,  109; 
Jones  on  his  way  to,  90;  road  from  London  to  Bath  and  Bristol, 
109;  soldiers  march  to  Hambrook  from,  92. 

British  Itinerary,  by  Paterson,  109. 

Brown,  Armitage,  90. 

Brunswick,  the  House  of,  63. 

Burke,  Sir  Bernard,  Peerage,  21. 

Bute,  Lady,  on  Fielding's  first  wife,  43,  57,  58. 

Byron,  Lord,  96. 

Calderon  de  la  Barca,  Don  Pedro,  35. 

Callan,  Viscount,  George  Fielding,  21. 

Canning,  Elizabeth,  74. 

Censorship  of  plays,  47. 

Cervantes,  —  Saavedra,  Miguel  de,  82,  90,  99;   errors  in  Don  Quixote, 

93- 
Chalmers,  Alexander,  74,  77. 

Champion,  The,  49,  52,  63. 


144  HENRY  FIELDING 

Characters  in  Amelia,  43,  55,  56,  57,  59,  93,  97,  98. 

Characters  in  Tom  Jones,  93. 

Chester  and  Coventry  to  London,  road  from,  no. 

Chew,  the  river,  109. 

Chubb,  Thomas,  the  deist,  was  original  of  "Square,"  93. 

Church  and  the  gentry,  22. 

Cibber,  Colley,  76,  82;  in  Love  in  Several  Masques,  34. 

Clarke's  Gazetteer,  29. 

Claverton,  near  Prior-park,  60. 

Clear  State  of  the  Case  of  Elizabeth  Canning,  74. 

Cockain,  Bridget,  23. 

Cockain,  Scipio,  23. 

Coke,  Sir  Edward,  Lord  chief  justice,  48. 

Coleshill,  Berks,  inn  at,  no,  in. 

Congreve,  William,  53. 

Correspondence  of  John  Duke  of  Bedford,  69. 

Covent  Garden  Journal,  74;   profits  of,  79,  80. 

Coventry,  Warwickshire,  109,  no;  on  the  road  to,  89. 

Craddock,  Miss  Charlotte,  Fielding's  first  wife,  40,  44. 

Craddock,  The  Misses,  of  Salisbury,  30,  44. 

Creasy,  Edward  S.,  Memoirs  of  Eminent  Etonians,  I15. 

Criticism  of  Fielding  by  Gibbon,  105. 

Croker,  T.  Crofton,  1 1 . 

Cry,  The,  by  Sarah  Fielding,  26. 

Cumberland,  Duke  of,  66. 

Cunningham,  George  G.,  115. 

Cynthia's  Revels,  hy  Ben  Jonson,  83. 

Dante,  Alighieri,  The  Inferno,  85. 
Daventry,  Northamptonshire,  no,  in. 


INDEX  145 

David  Simple,  by  Sarah  Fielding,  26,  67;  credited  to  Henry  Fielding, 
107;  introduction  by  Henry  Fielding,  60,  106,  107. 

Day,  William,  106. 

Denbigh,  house  of,  20,  21;  not  from  the  Hapsburgs,  105;  liveries, 
42,  43- 

Denbigh,  Basil  Fielding,  Earl  of  (1703),  104,  105;  Sir  William  Field- 
ing created  Earl  of,  21. 

Desmond,  George  Fielding,  Earl  of,  21. 

Dobson,  Austin,  106,  116,  117,  118. 

Donne,  Dr.  John,  22. 

Dowling,  the  attorney  in  Tom  Jones,  89. 

Dowling,  W.,  The  Eton  Portrait  Gallery,  1 18. 

Dream  in  The  Guardian,  84. 

Dunstable,  Bedfordshire,  iii. 

Ealing,  Fielding's  cottage  near,  75. 

East  Stour,  Dorsetshire,  24,  25,  26,  28,  30;    Fielding's  residence  at, 

47»  48,  49- 
Edgar  and  Edmund  oi  King  Lear,  88. 
Editions  of  Tom  Jones  published  in  1749,  131,  132,  137. 
Edwards,  Miss,  kept  Lord  A.  Hamilton,  95. 
Egotists,  literary,  100. 
Eighteenth  century  prose  writers,  80. 
Election,  The,  46. 

Elwin,  Rev.  Whitwell,  Some  XVIII  Century  Men  of  Letters,  118. 
Emma,  by  Jane  Austen,  89. 
English  manners  in  the  eighteenth  century,  99. 
Errata  page  in  Tom  Jones,  130,  131,  132. 
Errors  in  Don  Quixote,  93;  in  Tom  Jones,  89-93,  l°7;  •"  ^^^  Vicar 

of  Wakefield,  93. 


146  HENRY  FIELDING 

Eton  College,  Henry  Fielding  at,  26,  27. 

Evesham,  Sophia  meets  the  Irish   Lord  at,   109;    Sophia  and  Mrs. 

Fitzgerald  at,  no,  in. 
Exegi  Monumentum  of  Horace,  lOO. 

Falconer,  Dr.  Wilbraham,  62. 

"Fanny"  in  "Joseph  Andrews  as  Fielding's  wife  in  humble  rank,  83. 

Farquhar,  George,  35. 

Fatal  Curiosity,  The,  by  George  Lillo,  46. 

"Feilding"  or  "Fielding,"  21. 

Fielding  arms,  41,  42,  43. 

Fielding  family,  in  East  Stour,  25. 

Fielding,  Rev.  Allen,  son  of  Henry  by  second  wife,  "jj. 

Fielding,  Amelia,  daughter  of  Henry  by  second  wife,  "JJ. 

Fielding,  Ann,  25. 

Fielding,  Basil,  Earl  of  Denbigh  (1703),  104,  105. 

Fielding,  Beatrice,  25,  26. 

Fielding,  Catherine,  25. 

Fielding,  Damian,  son  of  Henry  by  second  wife,  77. 

Fielding,  Edmund,  Major  General,  father  of  Fielding,  23,  24,  25,  28, 

30.  5°- 
Fielding,  Edmund,  Jr.,  25,  26. 

Fielding,  Eleanor  Harriet,  daughter  of  Henry  by  first  wife,  77. 
Fielding,  George,  Viscount  Callan,  Earl  of  Desmond,  21. 
Fielding,  Haddington,  son  of  Henry  by  second  wife,  77. 
Fielding,  Henry,  biographies  of,  15,  1 13-128. 

—  allowance  from  his  father,  28. 

—  appearance,  28,  63,  75. 

—  as  a  barrister,  51. 

—  as  a  magistrate,  69,  72. 


INDEX  147 

Fielding,  Henry  (continued): 

—  as  a  Whig,  86. 

—  at  Bath,  62,  91. 

—  at  EaUng,  75. 

—  at  East  Stour,  24,  40»  4i>  42,  45- 

—  at  Eton,  26,  27. 

—  at  Leyden,  27,  33. 

—  at  London,  36,  37,  38,  39. 

—  at  Milford,  30. 

—  at  Twickenham,  67. 

—  at  Twiverton,  60. 

—  attempted  elopement  with  Sarah  Andrew,  31,  32,  33. 

—  birthplace,  23,  88. 

—  chambers  at  Pump  Court,  49. 

—  character  vindicated,  19,  20,  76. 

—  children  by  first  wife,  59,  77. 

—  children  by  second  wife,  77. 

—  courtship  and  marriage  to  Miss  Craddock,  40,  41,  44. 

—  cousin  of  Lady  Mary  W.  Montague,  22. 

—  credited  with  writing  David  Simple,  106. 

—  credited  with  writing  Roderick  Random,  107. 

—  criticized,  70,  72,  99,  105,  107. 

—  death,  75. 

—  debt  to  Moliere,  81. 

—  devotes  himself  to  literature,  28,  51. 

—  devotes  himself  to  law,  27,  47,  48,  49. 

—  dissipation,  36,  37. 

—  distress  in  1742-43,  52. 

—  dramatic  career,  34,  35,  36,  46,  47,  52,  53,  54,  81. 

—  dress,  37,  38. 


148  HENRY  FIELDING 

Fielding,  Henry  (continued) : 

—  earnings  as  a  playwright,  35. 

—  entered  at  Middle  Temple,  47. 

—  family,  59,  77. 

—  grandfather's  will,  105. 

—  habits,  54,  75,  76,  107. 

—  home  life,  57,  58,  59. 

—  house  at  East  Stour  pictured,  40. 

—  improvidence,  80. 

—  intimacy  with  Warton  family,  29. 

—  life,  according  to  Horace  Walpole,  70. 

—  life  after  return  from  Holland,  30. 

—  life  in  the  country,  45. 

—  literary  acquaintances,  80. 

—  liveries  at  East  Stour,  40,  41,  42,  43. 

—  married  life,  43,  44. 

—  noble  ancestry,  20. 

—  novels,  99. 

—  pecuniary  circumstances,  78,  79. 

—  pension,  63,  78. 

—  plays  furnish  characters  for  Amelia,  97,  98. 

—  portrait  by  Hogarth,  4. 

—  portrait  in  Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  14. 

—  portrait  in  town  hall,  Taunton,  12. 

—  poverty,  57,  58,  59. 

—  references  to  his  first  wife,  56,  59. 

—  relations  with  Rigby,  70,  71. 

—  residence  at  East  Stour,  24,  40,  41,  42,  45. 

—  residence  at  London,  36,  37,  38,  39. 

—  residence  at  Milford,  30. 


INDEX  149 

Fielding,  Henry  (continued): 

—  residence  at  Twiverton,  60. 

—  respect  for  virtue,  76. 

—  returns  from  Leyden  to  England,  27,  28. 

—  second  marriage  (to  wife's  maid),  63,  64,  65,  76,  77. 

—  style,  83,  100. 

—  takes  Haymarket  Theatre,  45,  46. 

—  taste  for  natural  scenery,  91. 

—  theatrical  career  ends,  47. 

—  treatment  of  his  first  wife,  73. 

—  victim  of  the  gout,  51,  62,  72. 

—  wife  (first),  43,  55,  56. 

as  Amelia,  93. 

as  Fanny,  83. 

as  Mrs.  Heartfree,  86. 

as  Sophia,  93. 

not  in  Journey  to  Next  JVorld,  84. 

Fielding,  Henry,  principal  works,  81-99. 

—  Address  to  Fame,  1 00. 

—  Advice  to  the  Nymphs  of  New  S m,  29,  30. 

—  Amelia,  23,  34,  36,  43,  55.  5^,  57»  59»  64,  73>  79.  89,  93,  97,  9^,  99- 

—  A  Clear  State  of  the  Case  of  Elizabeth  Canning,  74. 

—  Covent  Garden  Journal,  74. 

—  Defence  of  the  Dowager  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  51,  52. 

—  Description  of  U n,  G ,  29. 

—  Don  Quixote  in  England,  46. 

—  Historical  Register  for  1 7 36,  47. 

—  Inquiry  into  the  Causes  of  the  late  Increase  of  Robbers,  72. 

—  Introduction  to  David  Simple,  106,  107. 

—  Jacobite's  Journal,  68. 


150  HENRY  FIELDING 

Fielding,  Henry  {continued): 

—  Jonathan  Wild,  55,  71,  85,  86,  87. 

—  Joseph  Andrews,  36,  51,  61,  67,  82,  83,  84. 

—  Journey  from  this  World  to  the  Next,  36,  53,  55,  61,  84. 

—  Journal  of  a  Voyage  to  Lisbon,  63,  75,  76,  107. 

—  Justice  Caught  in  his  own  Trap,  97. 

—  Life  and  Death  of  Common  Sense,  46. 

—  Love  in  Several  Masques,  34. 

—  Miscellanies,  55,  68,  87,  106. 

—  Miss  Lucy  in  Town,  52,  55. 

—  Pasquin,  46. 

—  Preface  to  David  Simple,  60,  106,  107. 

—  Proposal  for  making  an  Effectual  Provision  for  the  Poor,  74. 

—  Remedy  of  Affliction  for  the  Loss  of  our  Friends,  56. 

—  The  Champion,  49,  52,  63. 

—  The  Election,  46. 

—  The  Good  Natured  Man,  The  Fathers,  or,  53. 

—  The  Miser,  39,  81. 

—  The  Mock  Doctor,  81. 

—  The  Modern  Husband,  86,  97. 

—  "The  Queen  of  Beauty  t'other  Day,"  30. 

—  The  Temple  Beau,  35,  97. 

—  The  True  Patriot,  59,  68. 

—  The  Universal  Gallant,  41. 

—  The  Wedding  Day,  37,  53,  54,  55. 

—  "To  Miss  H  —  and  at  Bath,"  52. 

—  Tom  Jones,  14,  60,  61,  71,  76,  79,  87-96,  99,  105,  107,  129-137. 

—  Tom  Thumb,  80,81. 

—  "Verses,"  55. 

Fielding,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  21,  22,  23. 


INDEX  151 

Fielding,  Sir  John,  21,  42,  64,  70,  78. 

Fielding,  Louise,  daughter  of  Henry  by  second  wife,  77. 

Fielding,  Mary  M.,  Henry  Fielding's  second  wife,  64,  65. 

Fielding,  Sarah,  author  oi David  Simple,  24,  25,  26,  42,  50,  60,  66,  67, 

105,  115. 
Fielding,  Sophia,  owned  miniature  of  Henry  Fielding,  14. 
Fielding,  Ursula,  25. 

Fielding,  William,  son  of  Henry  by  second  wife,  "]"]. 
Fielding,  Sir  William,  Earl  of  Denbigh,  21. 
Fitzgerald,  Mrs.,  at  Evesham,  no. 
Fox,  Henry,  27. 
Fox-Davies,  A.  C,  105. 

Erasers  Magazine,  Keightley's  Life  of  Fielding  in,  12,  13. 
Freeholder,  Addison's,  62. 

Garrick,  David,  posing  for  Fielding's  portrait,  13;   in  The  Wedding 

Day,  53,  54. 
Gay,  John,  author  of  The  Beggar's  Opera,  34. 
Genealogist,  105. 
General  Advertiser,  131. 

Gentleman's  Magazine,  The,  45,  51,  66,  90,  105,  107. 
Gibbon,  Edward,  on  Fielding,  105. 

Glastonbury,  Somersetshire,  23;   Bell  inn  at,  91;  Abbey,  88. 
Gloucester,  Jones  meets  Dowling  at,  89;  Jones  and  Partridge  leave,  90. 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  23,  83,  84,  93,  99. 
Good  Matured  Man,  The,  or  The  Fathers,  53. 
"Gosling  Scrag,"  Lord  Lyttleton  as,  in  Peregrine  Pickle,  65. 
Gosse,  Edmund,  118. 

Gothic  architecture  of  Allworthy's  house,  89. 
Gould,  Davidge,  105. 


152  HENRY  FIELDING 

Gould,  Sir  Henry,  23,  24,  28,  105. 

Gould,  Sarah,  23,  24. 

Gould,  William  Day,  24,  105,  106. 

Gout,  Fielding  a  victim  of,  51,  62,  72. 

Graves,  Rev.  Richard,  author  ofThe  Spiritual  Quixote,  60. 

Gray's  Inn  Journal,  74. 

Grecian  architecture  of  Prior-park,  89. 

Greenley,  Canon,  31,  60,  93. 

Guardian,  The,  dream  in,  84. 

Gypsies  in  the  barn,  no. 

Hagley   Park,   Lord   Lyttleton's   residence,   62,   91,    no;    as   AU- 

vporthy's  residence,  92. 
Hale,  Dr.,  Master  of  Cathedral  School,  as  "Thwackum,"  93. 
Hambrook,  Gloucestershire,  Jones  meets  Quaker  at,  90,  91;    Jones 

arrives  at,  108;  soldiers  at,  92. 
Hamilton,  Duke  of,  95. 

Hamilton,  Lord  Anne  (son  of  preceding),  kept  by  Miss  Edwards,  95. 
Hapsburg,  House  of,  20,  21,  43,  105. 
Hardv^icke,  Lord  Chancellor,  72,  73. 
Harrison,  Dr.,  in  Amelia,  97. 

Havard,  J.  A.,  Notice  sur  Fielding  et  ses  Ouvrages,  119. 
Haymarket  Theatre,  45,  46. 
"Heartfree,"  in  Jonathan  Wild,  86. 
Henley,  W.  E.,  Essay  on  Henry  Fielding  by,  119. 
Henry  HI  of  England,  20. 

Herbert,  David,  Memoir  of  Henry  Fielding  by,  119. 
Highgate,  Middlesex,  in. 
Historical  Register  for  1736,  47. 
Hoadly,  Dr.  John,  erected  monument  to  Sarah  Fielding,  25. 


INDEX  153 

Hoddington  House,  Hants,  29. 

Hogarth,  William,  13,  14,  80,  125,  126. 

Holyhead  from  Dublin,  no. 

Horace's  Exegi  Monumentum,  lOO. 

Horseback  riding  for  ladies,  99. 

Hutchins,  J.,  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  County  of  Dorset,  25,  40. 

Improbabilities,  in  Amelia,  98. 

Inquiry  into  the  Causes  of  the  late  Increase  of  Robbers,  72. 

Introduction  to  David  Simple,  106,  107. 

Ireland,  Samuel,  13. 

Irish  Lord,  109,  no. 

'Jacobite's  Journal,  68. 

James,  Colonel,  in  Amelia,  98. 

Jeaffreson,  J.  Cordy,  Novels  and  Novelists,  119. 

Jesse,  J.  Heneage,  Memoirs  of  Celebrated  Etonians,  120. 

Johnson,  Roger,  of  Newgate,  86. 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  80. 

Jonathan  Wild,  55,  71,  85,  86,  87. 

Jones,  Tom,  and  Blifil  the  Edgar  and  Edmund  of  King  Lear,  88; 
at  inn  on  way  to  Coventry,  no;  at  Upton  with  Mrs.  Waters,  95; 
compared  with  Booth,  97;  crosses  the  Avon,  90,  108;  dismissed 
by  Allworthy,  90,  108;  dress  of,  38;  going  as  a  soldier,  92;  going 
to  London,  92;  leaves  Gloucester,  90;  mother  thought  to  be 
Mrs.  Waters,  96;  on  his  way  to  Bristol,  90;  punished  for  mis- 
doing, 96;  why  made  illegitimate,  88;  supply  of  money,  108;  vices 
of,  94. 

Jonson,  Ben,  Cynthia's  Revels,  83. 

Joseph  Andrews,  36,  51,  61,  67,  82,  83,  84. 


154  HENRY  FIELDING 

Journal  of  a  Voyage  to  Lisbon,  63,  75,  76,  I07. 
Journey  from  this  World  to  the  Next,  36,  53,  55,  61,  84. 
Julian,  the  Apostate,  84. 

Justice  Caught  in  his  own  Trap,  The  Debauchees,  or,  97. 
Juvenal,  the  sixth  Satire  of,  32,  33. 

Keightley,  Thomas,  biography  of,  11,  12,  13;  errors  in  Tom  Jones, 
107,  108,  log,  no,  in;  errors  of,  no,  ni;  letter  to  Notes  and 
Queries,  106;  life  of  Fielding,  12,  13,  17-101,  I20;  on  bridges  over 
the  Avon,  109. 

Keynsham,  bridge  over  the  Avon  near,  108,  109. 

King  Lear,  88. 

Kingston,  Duke  of,  22. 

Kippis,  Andrew,  21,  105;  Biographica  Britannica,  105. 

Lane,  Thomas,  Master  in  Chancery,  72. 

Lawrence,  Frederick,  Life  of  Henry  Fielding,  12,  13,  19,  20,  21,  25, 

26,  31,  38,  39,  43,  47,  49,  61,  64,  66,  67,  73,  74,  77. 120. 
Lesage,  Alain  Rene,  author  of  G/V  Bias,  99. 
Leyden,  Henry  Fielding  at,  27. 
Licensing  act,  47,  86,  87. 
Life  and  Death  of  Common  Sense,  The,  46. 
Life  of  Jonathan  Wild  the  Great,  55,  71,  85,  86,  87. 
Lillo,  George,  The  Fatal  Curiosity,  46. 
Literary  egotists,  100. 
Littleton,  Thomas,  48. 
London,  Irish  Lord  posting  to,  no;   by  Chester  and  Coventry,  road 

to,  no;   by  Oxford,  road  to,  109;   to  Bath  and  Bristol,  109. 
Love  in  Several  Masques,  34. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  14,  120. 


INDEX  155 

Lyme  Regis,  Dorset,  31,  32,  33;  History  of  Lyme  Regis,  31. 

Lyttleton,  George  Lord,  27,  38,  39,  63,  65,  69,  70,  71,  80,  88;  at 
Bath,  91;  at  Hagley  Park,  62,  91;  in  part  the  original  of  "All- 
worthy,"  93;  taste  for  natural  scenery,  92;  Tom  Jones  dedicated 
to,  60,  6r. 

Lyttleton,  Sir  Thomas,  91,  92,  93. 

Macintosh,  Sir  James,  73. 

Macklin,  Charles,  in  The  Wedding  Day,  53. 

Markhand,  James  H.,  lecture  on  Bath,  96. 

Malaprop,  Mrs.,  founded  on  "Slipslop,"  83. 

Marlborough,  John,  Duke  of,  41,  60. 

Marlborough,  Sarah,  Duchess  of,  51,  52. 

Marraton,  vision  of,  in  The  Spectator,  84. 

Matthews,  Miss,  in  Amelia,  97,  98. 

Mazzard  Hill,  between  Gloucester  and  Upton,  91. 

McSpadden,  J.  W.,  Henry  Fielding,  120. 

Meehan,  J.  F.,  of  Bath,  109. 

Memoirs  of  Eminent  Etonians,  by  Creasy,  1 15. 

Middlesex,  Fielding  magistrate  for,  69. 

Milford,  Fielding's  residence  at,  30. 

Millar,  A.,  publisher,  107,  131. 

Miller,  Mrs.,  boarding-house  keeper  in  Tom  Jones,  95,  96. 

Milton,  John,  100. 

Miscellanies,  by  Henry  Fielding,  55,  68,  87,  106. 

Miser,  The,  39,  81. 

Miss  Lucy  in  Town,  52,  55. 

Mock  Doctor,  The,  81. 

Modbury,  South  Devon,  31. 

Modern  Husband,  The,  86,  97. 


156  HENRY  FIELDING 

Modern,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  as  Captain  Trent  and  Miss  Matthews,  98. 
Moliere,  Fielding's  debt  to,  81. 
Monmouth  and  the  bridge  over  the  Avon,  109. 
Montague,  George,  Walpole's  letter  to,  70. 

Montague,  Lady  Mary  Wortley,  22,  28,  56,  57,  58,  59,  64,  80,  100. 
"Moria,"  in  Cynthia's  Revels,  83. 
Motcombe,  County  Dorset,  106. 
Mudford,  William,  Life  of  Henry  Fielding,  121. 

Murphy,  Arthur,  Life  of  Fielding,  25,  26,  27,  28,  i^,  37,  38,  39, 
40,  41,  42,  43,  44,  48,50,  51,  53,  54,  55,  64,  69,  71,  72,  74,  T], 

78,  121. 
"Murphy"  the  Salisbury  Attorney  in  Amelia,  71. 

Newcastle,  Duke  of,  74. 

Newgate,  86. 

Newgate  Calendar,  85. 

New  Sarum,  Salisbury,  30. 

Newton  bridge,  109. 

Nichols,  John,  History  of  Leicestershire,  22,  77;    Literary  Anecdotes 

of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  14,  121. 
Northamptonshire,  no,  in. 
Notes  and  Queries,  105,  109. 
Novels  of  Fielding,  99. 

Odiham,  Hants,  29. 

Old  Bailey,  85. 

Old  days  and  new,  98. 

Oldfield,  Mrs.  Anne,  in  Love  in  Several  Masques,  34. 

Oliver,  Rev.  Mr.,  tutor  to  Henry  Fielding,  26. 

Oxford,  Sophia  at,  no,  in;  to  London,  road  from,  109. 


INDEX  157 

Page  Ixiii  in  the  second  edition  of  Tom  Jones,  131,  132. 

Palace  of  Death,  Fielding's  description  of,  84. 

Pamela,  the  inspiration  o(  Joseph  Andrews,  82. 

"Parson  Adams,"  was  Edward  Young,  83;   the  original  of  the  Vicar 

of  Wakefield,  84;    travels  of,  92. 
Partridge, ,  leaves  Gloucester,  go;  trouble  with  the  Gypsy  woman, 

no;  tells  Jones  Mrs.  Waters  was  his  mother,  96. 
Pasquin,  46. 

Paterson's  British  Itinerary,  109. 
Pension,  Fielding's,  63. 

Peregrine  Pickle,  on  Fielding's  second  marriage,  64. 
"Peter  Pounce,"  was  Peter  Walter,  83. 
Pitt,  William,  at  Eton,  27. 
Plato,  48. 

Plays  of  Fielding  and  Amelia,  97,  98. 
Plot  of  Amelia,  89;   of  Tom  Jones,  89. 
Pompey  the  Little,  Lady  Tempest  in,  93. 
Pope,  Alexander,  71,  100. 
Portraits  of  Fielding,  4,  12,  14. 
Preface  to  David  Simple,  60,  106,  107. 
Pretender  at  Preston  Pans,  62. 
Primrose,  Mrs.,  in  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  84. 
Prior-park,  60,  61,  62,  88,  89. 
Pritchard,  Mrs.,  in  The  Wedding  Day,  53. 
Proposal  for  making  an  effectual  Provision  for  the  Poor,  74. 
Prose  writers,  of  the  eighteenth  century,  80. 
Provoked  Husband,  The,  34,  36. 
Pug's  letter,  in  The  Spectator,  84. 
Pultney,  William,  Earl  of  Bath,  86. 
Pump  Court,  Fielding's  chambers  in,  49. 


158  HENRY  FIELDING 

Quaker  directs  Jones  to  Inn,  90. 
"Queen  of  Beauty  t'other  Day,"  30. 

Racine's  Ataldide,  94. 

Ralph  on  The  Champion,  52. 

RebelHon  of  1746,  63. 

Rehearsal,  The,  46. 

Remedy  of  Affliction  for  the  Loss  of  Our  Friends,  56. 

Rhein-filding,  21. 

Rhodes,  Mr.,  married  Sarah  Andrew,  34. 

Rhodes,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Bath,  31,  32. 

Rich,  Christopher,  34. 

Richardson,  Samuel,  44,  56,  76,  82,  88. 

Richly,  Lord,  as  Col.  James,  98. 

Richmond,  Duke  of,  38,  39. 

Rigby,  Richard,  70,  71. 

Roads,  from  Bath  or  Bristol  to  Hagley  Park,  gi;    from  Evesham  to 

Coventry,  1 10;   Chester  to  London,  no;   Coventry  to  London,  91, 

no. 
Roberts,  George,  History  of  Lyme  Regis,  31. 
Robertson's  Topographical  Survey  of  the  Great  Road  from  London  to 

Bath  and  Bristol,  109. 
Roderick  Random,  credited  to  Fielding,  107. 
Roscoe,  Thomas,  Life  of  Fielding,  107,  122. 
Round,  J.  H.,  105. 
Roxborough,  Duke  of,  38. 

Saintsbury,  George,  107,  122. 

Salisbury,  30,  33,  34,  41,  43,  44;   characters  in  Tom  Jones  at,  93. 

Sclater,  Wm.  Lutley,  29. 


INDEX  159 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  68,  81,  88,  99,  123. 

Scriblerus  Junior,  81. 

Seagrim,  Molly,  94,  95. 

Segur,  M.  de,  Le  Portrait  de  Fielding,  13. 

Sevigne,  Mme.  de,  57. 

Shakspeare,  William,  21,  81,  83,  90;   King  Lear,  88. 

Sharpham-Park,  near  Glastonbury,  Somerset,  23,  24,  25,  26,  89; 

birthplace  of  Fielding,  88. 
Side  saddles  at  the  inns,  99. 
Sixth  Satire  of  Juvenal,  32,  T,-^. 
"Slipslop,"  in  Joseph  Andrews,  83. 
Smith,  George  Barnett,  123. 
Smollett,  Tobias,  23,  76,  125,  126. 
Soldiers'  march  from  Bristol  to  Hambrook,  92. 
Sophia,  and  Sarah  Andrew,  31,  32;    as  Fielding's  wife,  55,  56,  93; 

at  Coventry,  no;   at  Dunstable,  iii;   at  Evesham,  no;   character 

of,  96;    crosses  the  Avon,  91,   108;    meets  the  Irish  Lord,   109; 

route  of,  from  Coventry  to  London,  no,  in;  supply  of  money  by, 

92,  108. 
Spectator,  The,  49;   Pug's  letter  in,  84;   vision  of  Marraton  in,  84. 
Spondy,  Mr.,  in  Peregrine  Pickle,  65. 
Square,  original  was  Thomas  Chubb,  93. 
St.  Albans,  Herts,  in. 
Stapfer,  Paul,  124. 

Steevens,  George,  Biographical  Anecdotes  of  William  Hogarth,  13. 
Stephen,  Leslie,  Memoir  of  Henry  Fielding,  124. 
Stony  Stratford,  Bucks,  no,  in. 
Stour,  East,  Dorsetshire,  24,  25,  26,  28,  30,  40,  41. 
Strahan,  John,  land  surveyor  of  Bristol,  109. 
Stratford,  on  the  Ouse,  109,  no,  in. 


i6o  HENRY  FIELDING 

Summer  to  Winter  in  Tom  Jones,  90,  108. 

Surface,  Charles  and  Joseph,  in  The  School  for  Scandal,  88. 

Swift,  Jonathan,  71. 

Taine,  H.  a.,  124,  125. 

Tatler,  The,  49. 

Taunton,  Bust  of  Fielding  at,  12. 

Tempest,  Lady,  from  Lady  Townshend,  93. 

Temple  Beau,  The,  35,  97. 

Temple,  Middle,  47. 

Thackeray,  William  Makepeace,  125,  126,  127. 

Thompson,  James,  80,  91. 

Thwackum,  from  Dr.  Hale,  93. 

Title-pages  to  Tom  Jones,  14,  130. 

"To  Miss  H  —  and  at  Bath,"  52. 

Tom  Jones,  "ji,  87-96;  advertisement  of,  131;  beginning  of,  60; 
criticised,  94,  96,  99,  105;  dedicated  to  George  Lord  Lyttleton,  60, 
61;  errors  in,  89-93,  107;  first  and  second  editions  compared,  129- 
137;  Gibbon  on,  105;  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  99;  plot  of,  89; 
published,  76,  131;    sold  for  ^^700,  79;   title-pages  to,  14,  130. 

Tom  Thumb,  80,  81. 

Townsend,  George  H.,  Life  and   Works  of  Henry  Fielding,  124. 

Townshend,  Lady  Ethelreda  Harrison, Viscountess, as  Lady  Bellaston, 
or  Lady  Tempest  in  Pompey  the  Little,  93. 

Travelling  without  money,  92. 

Trent,  Captain,  as  Mr.  Modern,  97. 

True  Patriot,  The,  59,  68. 

Trumble,  Alfred,  Henry  Fielding,  127. 

TruUiber,  Parson,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Oliver,  26. 

Tucker,  Andrew,  of  Lyme  Regis,  31,  32. 


INDEX  i6i 

Twickenham,  Fielding  at,  65,  67,  68. 

Twiverton,  near  Bath,  Fielding's  residence  at,  60,  61,  62. 

Universal  Gallant,  The,  41. 

Upton,  Worcestershire,  91;    Jones  and  Mrs.  Waters  at,  89,  95;    the 

flight  from,  109. 
Upton  Grey,  County  Hants,  29. 

Vane,  Lady,  wife  of  William  Viscount  Vane,  and  heroine  of  Smollett's 

"Memoirs  of  a  Lady  of  Quality"  in  Peregrine  Pickle,  95. 
Verses  by  Fielding  in  the  Miscellanies,  55. 
Vicar  of  Wakefield,  83,  84,  93. 
Vices,  of  Tom  Jones,  94;  of  our  forefathers,  98. 
Virgil's  /Eneid,  61. 
Virtue,  George,  107. 

Vision  of  Marraton,  in  The  Spectator,  84. 
Voyage  to  Lisbon,  63,  76,  107. 

Walpole,  Horace,  70,  72,  107. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  47,  76,  85,  86,  87. 

Walter,  Peter,  as  "  Peter  Pounce,"  83. 

Warburton,  Rev.  Wm.,  6r. 

Warner,  R.,  History  of  Glastonbury,  24. 

Warren,  Samuel,  Law  Studies,  12. 

Warton  family,  of  Basingstoke,  Hants,  29. 

Warton,  Joseph,  66,  67,  68. 

Warwick,  Warwickshire,  109. 

Waters,  Mrs.,  at  Upton  with  Tom  Jones,  89,  95;    thought  to  be 

mother  of  Jones,  96. 
Watson,  William,  Life  of  Fielding,  85,  127,  128. 


i62  HENRY  FIELDING 

Watt,  Robert,  Bibliotheca  Britannica,  1 28. 

Wedding  Day,  The,  ^-J,  53,  54,  55. 

Welch,  Saunders,  Fielding's  successor  as  magistrate,  78. 

Western,  Mrs.,  94. 

Western,  Squire,  crosses  the  Avon,  91,  108;    originals  of,  93. 

Westminster  and  Middlesex,  Fielding  magistrate  for,  69. 

Westminster  Hall,  49,  51. 

Wharncliffe,  Lord,  on  Fielding's  first  wife,  57,  58;    on  his   second 

marriage,  63,  64. 
Whetstone,  Middlesex,  iii. 
Whig,  Fielding  as  a,  86. 

Whipple,  E.  P.,  Life  and  Works  of  Henry  Fielding,  128. 
Whitfield,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  of  the  Bell  inn,  Gloucester,  91. 
Wilks,  Robert,  in  Love  in  Several  Masques,  34. 
Williams,  Sir  Charles  Hanbury,  27,  70. 
Wilson,  Mrs.,  83. 

Wiltshire  sessions,  attended  by  Fielding,  51. 
Winnington,  Thomas,  at  Eton  with    Fielding,  27. 
Winter  from  Summer  in  Tom  Jones,  90,  108. 
Woffington,  "Peg,"  in  The  Wedding  Day,  53. 
Wycherley,  William,  35,  53. 

Xenocrates  rather  rare,  95. 

Xenophon's  Memorabilia,  translated  by  Sarah  Fielding,  26. 

Young,  Edward,  author  oi  Night  Thoughts,  the  original  of  "Parson 
Adams,"  in  "Joseph  Andrews,  83. 


Privately  printed  for  the  Rowfant  Club 

by  The  Arthur  H.  Clark  Company, 

Cleveland,  MDCCCCVII 


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